Twitter has announced it is banning all political advertising on its platform starting November 22.

Key points: Ads for specific political candidates as well as broader issues-based campaigns will be banned

Ads for specific political candidates as well as broader issues-based campaigns will be banned Twitter said it would share its final policy one week before the ban comes into place

Twitter said it would share its final policy one week before the ban comes into place The company's biggest social media rival, Facebook, has been under pressure over its handling of the issue

The decision was announced this morning by chief executive Jack Dorsey, who said it was about stopping political campaigns "paying for reach", not limiting their free expression.

Twitter said the ban covered both ads for specific political candidates as well as broader issues-based political campaigns.

But Mr Dorsey said there would be a few exceptions — "ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed, for instance" — and that the company would share its final policy on November 15.

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Twitter's ban is specifically aimed at paid advertising, meaning US President Donald Trump will still be able to share the same political messages with his 66 million followers, he just will not be able to pay to make more people see them.

The policy is not directed at the accuracy of political messages.

Twitter's biggest social media rival, Facebook, has felt the most pressure over its political-advertising policies, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian election interference.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 5 minutes 29 seconds 5 m Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grills Mark Zuckerberg about knowledge of Cambridge Analytica

Last week, founder Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a US congressional hearing over Facebook's decision not to fact-check political ads.

"Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries, saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?" she asked, referring to the climate change policy which was notably unpopular with Republicans.

Mr Zuckerberg responded: "I don't know the answer of that off the top of my head, I think probably."

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that one of the measures that it would be introducing in time for the 2020 US elections was "clearer fact-checking labels" to stop the spread of misinformation.

But Mr Zuckerberg was not clear in the congressional hearing on whether political ads would still be able to have "outright lies".

"I believe that in a democracy, people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for are saying, so they can judge their character for themselves," he said.

Twitter's decision to ban political advertising is not unprecedented. Google banned political advertising in Canada ahead of that country's election this month.

However, Google said it did that because it would be too challenging to comply with Canada's ad transparency laws.