On October 30th, 2019, Twitter changed the social media landscape when they announced that they would be banning all political ads moving forward. Following the complicated issues of interference via social media during the 2016 campaigns, this decision was revolutionary. No matter which way you lean on the interference issue, Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey, made a decision for us. While Facebook maintained their current hands-off approach in regards to ad freedom across their platforms, Twitter chose to take that freedom away, causing freedom of speech advocates to erupt.

Without discussing the incredibly polarizing issues surrounding political campaigns in America today, I think it's important that we do not overlook the powers, and resulting dangers of social media in our everyday lives. This initiative taken by Twitter was the first step in what I believe is the first check on information dissemination for the social world. Social media doesn't really fall into any bucket when it comes to regulation. Private entities can pretty much do whatever they want, and no one in government seems to know enough about the social industry to step in and make a call here. So, after witnessing the wave of #fakenews during the 2016 campaign cycle, Twitter decided to take preventative action to avoid a similar result this time around, at least on their platform, in preparation for the 2020 elections. I also think it's important to point out that Twitter did not ban political conversation, or any political movement, they simply banned the ability for private organizations to pay to run paid ads on their platform in an effort to promote individual candidates or particular ideologies.

With the limited protections we currently see across app, web and social use, I feel that this was a bigger blow to the social world than many people realize. While I don't think a private entity with such a large reach should have the ability to limit what we are able to talk about, I do see their point in limiting what we can spend our money on in regards to advertising. Anyone on Twitter can still access any information they so choose. All of their followers tweets will still remain on their feeds and they will have the same access to public accounts as always. However, Twitter will not allow private organizations to pay their way into the feeds of their users. Again, whether or not you agree with this move by Twitter, this is the beginning of social regulation. Whether or not it moves forward rapidly or this is the biggest initiative we see for a while, Twitter took a big risk doing this without the backup of Facebook. Maybe, just maybe, if Twitter can do it, Facebook will change their stubborn ways somewhere down the road and protect the American public over their own personal financial gain as a private organization.