Twitter says it will stop running political ads worldwide

WASHINGTON - Twitter said Wednesday it would stop all political advertising globally on its platform, responding to growing criticism over misinformation from politicians on social media.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a tweet that the company took the action to head off potential problems from "machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes."

The move comes with Facebook under pressure to apply fact-checking to politicians running ads with debunked claims. — Agence France-Presse