Tech

Elizabeth Warren slams Twitter for a policy that bans ads from groups fighting climate change

Key Points
  • In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren took shots at Twitter's new ad policy that bans political ads.
  • Warren attacked Twitter for blocking organizations that are fighting climate change from running ads on the site while allowing ads from companies like Exxon on the same topic.
2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren at a Warren Indianola Town Hall at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa on Sunday October 20, 2019.
Melina Mara via Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren is proving to be an equal opportunist when it comes to taking on social media companies.

On Tuesday, Sen. Warren, who's running for president, slammed Twitter's new ad policy that bans political ads. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the Massachusetts Democrat attacked the company for blocking organizations that are fighting climate change from running ads on the social network while allowing ads from companies like Exxon on the same topic.

Her criticism comes a week after Twitter said it would no longer allow political ads on its service, a policy that blocks ads from politicians, ads that refer to an election or candidate or ads related to politically-sensitive issues.

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to Warren with a tweet on Tuesday, saying that the company will announce the specifics of its new ad policies on Nov. 15.

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Warren has been on a crusade against Big Tech throughout her presidential campaign. In March, she proposed the breakup of companies like Facebook and Amazon, and last month she criticized Facebook for its own political ad policies, which allow candidates to run ads that include false information.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company's political ads policy, saying in a speech at Georgetown University that "banning political ads favors incumbents and whoever the media covers." Separately, he told Facebook employees that he would "go to the mat" and fight against anyone trying to break up the company, according to leaked audio that was published by The Verge.

This was Warren's first time to publicly go after Twitter's stance on political ads.

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Part of Twitter's policy bans "ads that advocate for or against legislative issues of national importance (such as: climate change, healthcare, immigration, national security, taxes)," according to a tweet from Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's lead for legal, public policy and trust and safety lead.

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A Twitter spokesperson did not have an additional comment beyond Dorsey's tweets.

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