Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Brought to you by America's beverage companies. I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, new troubles for Boeing and the auto world's latest mega merger.

But first, Twitter pokes Facebook.

So yesterday afternoon, just minutes before Facebook was set to report quarterly earnings,

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his company will no longer accept political advertising,

beginning in a few weeks.

That means no more paid Twitter ads from candidates, nor from those

pushing political agendas, outside of a few bipartisan things like voter registration.

In Dorsey's words, quote, we believe political message reach should be earned, not bought, end

quote. In other words, lots of retweets, not lots of dollars. Now, Twitter's move stands in stark

contrast to Facebook's message to politicians, which has basically been,

we will let you pay to run just about anything you want and won't subject you to the same fact-checking that all of our other advertisers go through.

Twitter's move forced Mark Zuckerberg to address this further during the earnings call, and like when he was questioned about it on Capitol Hill by AOC last week,

he blathered on a bit about free speech without really addressing the fundamental issue,

the one about his users becoming more misinformed.

Now, to be clear, Twitter makes a lot less money from political ads than does Facebook,

so had a lot less to lose, and politicians themselves will still be able to put out messages, including misinformation, through their personal Twitter accounts.

But what Dorsey's done highlights how social networks are basically being forced to make up their own rules on political ads because Congress and the Federal Elections Commission, they're not doing it.

And until that changes, it will be

very difficult for social media users to know who and what to trust. In 15 seconds, we'll go

deeper with Axios chief technology correspondent Inafreed. But first, this. ProRata is presented

by America's beverage companies. Our plastic bottles are 100% recyclable, including the caps. We're working

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