“Twitter blocks state-controlled media outlets from advertising on its social network”
Twitter blocks state-controlled media outlets from advertising on its social network
The article reports Twitter’s recent decision to stop state-controlled media from buying advertisements on Twitter. Part of the reasons is due to the Chinese government’s attempt to influence the public’s opinions on protests undergoing in Hong Kong. Some people argue this behavior interferes with users’ freedom of speech on the internet and limits users’ access to advertising tools. They said state-controlled media is still one of the many opinions and should be displayed to the public. Others disagree because the information coming from sources like these is usually biased and incorrect. I personally agree with the latter.
As Twitter claimed, there is a difference between seeing content from accounts you follow and content from advertisers. On Twitter, most of the content people will see on their homepage comes either from their direct following accounts (direct connections), or from accounts followed by their direct connections. But advertising posts can largely come from an account not connected to your network at all and are spread very broadly. Political posts are usually extremely biased and provocative. If people who have no idea of the context see the posts, they can be influenced by the biased content and fail to capture truth. Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election has proved to be a threat of democracy and a source of misinformation. Because the advertising algorithms are now so powerful at targeting audiences, social media companies like Twitter and Facebook need to be even more careful about their advertising policies.