Trump Campaign Says Twitter Ad Ban Will Cost Company $10 Million

(Bloomberg) –– President Donald Trump’s campaign said Twitter Inc.’s decision this week to ban political ads means the company will lose more than $10 million that it planned to spend on the social media platform.

The Trump campaign spends more money on other social networking sites, a senior campaign official said Thursday on a conference call with reporters. The campaign views Twitter as a channel for messaging and a way to benchmark its advertising efforts.

Trump, with 66.4 million Twitter followers, is a prolific user of the platform, often communicating his talking points from the early morning hours to late evening.

The campaign also expressed doubt that Facebook Inc. would follow suit, pointing to comments made by its founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. If Facebook were to follow suit, it would have a bigger impact, added the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal campaign deliberations.

Zuckerberg defended Facebook’s policy Wednesday following Twitter’s decision to ban political ads, and doubled down on casting his platform as central to free democratic discourse.

He’s asserted that a powerful platform should not act as an arbiter of political truth but rather promote useful debates about politicians’ statements.