Democrats laud Twitter for political ad ban, Conservatives cry foul

Most of the Democratic presidential candidates welcomed Twitter’s decision to stop all political advertisements globally starting November 22. While Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden’s campaign spokesperson appreciated the decision and called it a choice between “advertisement dollars” and the “integrity of democracy”, Montana Governor Steve Bullock suggested Facebook should follow Twitter’s lead. 

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Democrats call it a responsible decision

“It would be unfortunate to suggest that the only option available to social media companies to do so is the full withdrawal of political advertising, but when faced with a choice between ad dollars and the integrity of our democracy, it is encouraging that, for once, revenue did not win out,” said Bill Russo, Biden’s campaign spokesperson, in a statement. 

Pete Buttigieg, another presidential candidate and mayor of South Bend, said that digital platforms should accept their responsibility for truth in advertising, or they should not be in the business at all.

“If they run a political ad shown to be false, it should be removed—just like a TV station would do. We must act to protect our democracy in the digital age,” he tweeted. 

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar compared the policies of Twitter and Facebook saying it was a “patchwork of solutions” across various platforms that are not going to work.  

Read: Democrats Publish Resolution To Unveil Trump's Impeachment Procedure

Conservatives not impressed

Meanwhile, Conservatives are apprehensive of the decision and the biggest criticism came from Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale. Calling it a “very dumb decision", he reasoned that the micro-blogging site walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars of potential revenue”. “Will Twitter also be stopping ads from biased liberal media outlet who will now run unchecked as they buy obvious political content meant to attack Republicans?” Parscale asked. He claimed that it is an attempt by Twitter to silence Conservatives as it knows “President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever known”.

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(With AP Inputs)