The NDP leader was asked today if he was concerned about how twitter will handle election campaigns after the social network announced last night that it will relax the ban on political advertising adopted by the social network in 2019. This was Jagmeet Sighn's response:
In general what we are seeing on Twitter with Elon Musk as owner and ceo has been disastrous. I think he's made a lot of decisions that he's then had to reverse, a lot of comments that he's then had to delete and he's not been clear with the direction he wants to go. We've seen a worrying increase in hate messages on Twitter, that's my biggest concern. But in terms of how he will approach the political campaign I think there are ways to do that if in a clear way you tell people that it's a paid ad or a paid campaign, "this message is paid for," just like we see on TV. but I'm concerned about any kind of protocol that Elon Musk sets up given his track record and how unclear and horrible he's been running Twitter.
The move announced yesterday is one of Elon Musk's latest attempts to boost Twitter's revenue.
The company tweeted Tuesday night, "We will relax our advertising policy for cause-based ads in the U.S. We also plan to expand allowed political advertising in the coming weeks," the company said from its Twitter Safety account.
Twitter banned all political advertising in 2019 in response to growing concerns about the spread of misinformation on social media.
At the time, then-CEO Jack Dorsey said that while online ads are powerful and effective for commercial advertisers, "that power carries significant risks for politics, where it can be used to sway votes to affect the lives of millions."
The latest move appears to represent a break with that policy, which had banned ads from candidates, political parties or elected or appointed government officials.