Twitter shakes up fight over political ads

Twitter’s surprising decision to ban all political advertisements is shaking up the debate over how online platforms moderate political speech from public officials and candidates.

The company earned a wave of praise from Democrats over its move, announced Wednesday, but faced harsh criticism from many on the right, who questioned if it amounted to censorship.

The reactions only underscored the contentious nature of the debate. Far from resolving the matter, Twitter’s decision will likely subject the company to more scrutiny as it finalizes its rules and walks a tightrope between cracking down on misinformation and protecting speech. And it will increase pressure on other platforms to reexamine their own policies.

Twitter’s political ad ban capitalized on the whirlwind of controversy surrounding larger rival Facebook, which has spent weeks defending its policy to not fact-check or block advertisements from politicians with false or misleading claims.

In an era of a broad Washington skepticism and scrutiny of Big Tech, Twitter received praise from Democratic lawmakers, many of whom said Facebook should follow suit.

“Twitter is fulfilling its responsibility to avoid becoming a cesspool of falsehood,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of the top tech critics in the Senate, told reporters on Thursday. “My hope is that Facebook and Google will follow their example.”

But critics on the right — including President Trump’s campaign — strongly pushed back at the ban, accusing the platform of caving to Democrats and stifling free expression.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale blasted the ban as a “dumb” decision in a statement on Thursday night, claiming “biased liberal media outlets … will now run unchecked as they buy obvious political content meant to attack Republicans.”