Twitter and Google are both tackling political advertising, but Facebook isn't

  • Twitter's political advertising ban went into effect on Friday and Google has revealed plans to restrict political advertising on its platforms worldwide.

    Social media has been in the firing line over the past several years as people across the world have pushed back against political advertising in their social feeds. The scale of the problem became clear during the Cambridge Analytica scandal when it was revealed that private organisations had used micro-targeted social media advertising to influence people in several major elections in the US and UK.

    At the start of the month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the platform would be banning all political advertising from November 22nd onward to combat the issue, sending a message that "political message reach should be earned, not bought." That ban has now officially gone into effect.

    The new policy prohibits "ads that contain references to political content, including appeals for votes, solicitations of financial support, and advocacy for or against any of the above-listed types of political content," and additional bans "ads of any type by candidates, political parties, or elected or appointed government officials."

    Google has since followed suit with its own plan of action for targeting political advertising, announcing an update to its political advertising policy on Wednesday last week. Election ads can no longer micro-target certain types of individual based on highly specific factors such as interests, and are now limited to targeting based on age, gender, and postcode.

    Facebook has continued to defend its stance of allowing political advertisements on its platforms.

    Source: Google, Twitter, Facebook

    About the author

    Brendan is a Sync NI writer with a special interest in the gaming sector, programming, emerging technology, and physics. To connect with Brendan, feel free to send him an email or follow him on Twitter.

    Got a news-related tip you’d like to see covered on Sync NI? Email the editorial team for our consideration.

    Sign up now for a FREE weekly newsletter showcasing the latest news, jobs and events in NI’s tech sector.

Share this story