Its harder to ban political ads on Twitter than it sounds

If you’ve ever wondered about the value of having multiple social networks competing to develop the best products and policies, Wednesday offered us a clear example.

Facebook is now three weeks into a controversy over whether (and how) it ought to regulate political ads, and the lies those ads will inevitably sometimes contain. Lots of folks (including some Facebook employees) have proposed ideas, including banning political ads from the platform altogether.

Today, Jack Dorsey took their suggestion — for Twitter. In a thoughtful thread, Dorsey laid out his case for banning both issue ads and campaign ads. Notably, he honed in on two things that make social ads unique: their speed, and the way they can target small niche communities at...

Continue reading…