Twitter has permanently banned the popular news aggregation service Politics For All, in a sign of how the social media platform has substantial power to deprive news outlets of their audience without warning.
Politics for All, founded by 19-year-old Nick Moar, grew rapidly over the last twelve months by aggressively aggregating news stories published and reported by mainstream outlets. Its understanding of what would go viral on Twitter attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, including MPs and government ministers.
However, the account was also accused of distorting stories by focusing on specifics that would go viral. Mainstream journalists also complained that its emoji-laden breaking news posts would often attract more social media shares than the posts by the outlets who actually reported the stories.
Moar, who was last year hired by the Spectator to run its social media accounts, declined to comment on the deletion of Politics For All. Many other related accounts he set up under the For All banner, which were run with the assistance of a team of young staff, have also been permanently suspended.
The deletion of a relatively popular news aggregation service by Twitter could attract political scrutiny. Social media platforms will soon be regulated by Ofcom under the forthcoming online harms legislation, with mainstream journalism outlets lobbying hard to ensure their access to audiences is protected.
