UKH

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50243306

I’m sure they’ll be back to normal when their accountants tell them how much money they’ve waved goodbye to . . .

. . . though thinking about that a little more raises an interesting question: if you're a politician with a personal account, isn't everything you say an advertisement of some sort?  Does that mean that Twitter will give politicians more interventionist good sense filters than anyone else?

Perhaps not a big deal if you're a backbench MP seeking to communicate with those you want to vote for you, but if you're a perma-tanned idiot with ridiculous hair who feels the need to dribble into the twittersphere every vacuous murmuring that escapes from his tiny mind without thought for the consequence, then there's a very good chance that Twitter will give you more effective social media oversight than the whole of the government of the USA are able to provide for their president.

T.

There's a difference between regular tweets and paying for tweets/ads/content to be promoted to specific groups, including those who don't follow. I think they've just banned political ads, not political tweets from those involved in politics.

Jack's tweet thread talks about "earned reach" and "bought reach". I guess the perma-tanned idiot you refer to has earned his reach...

Yes, the next issue is that they aren't doing anything to remove the "Bought reach" when it comes to Bots  - this is where a lot of the damage comes from.

I think this is probably a more calculated move; Twitter only makes a few million a year from political advertising and seems to be thought of as poor value for money. On the other hand Facebook rakes in advertising cash from political organisations and if this were to spread would stand to lose a lot more.

Probably more a poke at a competitor than an ethical standpoint. 

It's a social-conscience image savvy move they can afford to make.

In the last general election, uk politics parties spent £57k on Twitter advertising and £3m on Facebook.

From the sounds of things, political ads which encourage voters to register will still be allowed. While I think this is good, it could be used as a loophole for some parties who wish to target specific demographics to register, rather than just advertising to everyone, and therefore benefiting the party.

Seen a few comments about regarding this, so hopefully Twitter will do something to address it too, such as not allowing targeted advertising for these types of ad.

But still, I think its step forward. Hopefully others will follow suit, and all platforms will also cut down the number of bots can be just as dangerous.

Twitter has been accused of political bias in its algorithms and theres a lot if interest in this election.

Will be interesting to see how effective they are at limiting campaigning from both sides in equal measure, or if one political party seems to slip through more than another.