US social media company Twitter said on Wednesday it was softening the platform's policy on political advertising.
"We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we're relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks," the company tweeted.
Twitter also plans to align its advertising policy with the one followed by US television and other mass media services, the message read.
The ban has been in place sine 2019, prohibiting the promotion of political content on the platform.
The ad could also bring additional revenue to the company which is hampered by a small income. The issue became important after several major advertisers left Twitter as a reaction against Musk taking control of the social network last year, because they feared he would moderate content.
Musk, who has repeatedly stressed he is a champion of free speech, changed the strict moderation policy and revealed Twitter papers, suggesting that under the previous ownership, an inordinate amount of censorship had existed as well as possible links with authorities regarding the control of news flow on the network.
Elon Musk-led Twitter said it will expand the political advertising it permits in coming weeks to “facilitate public conversation around important topics” and align its advertising policy with those of TV and other media outlets.
We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we're relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 3, 2023
Twitter Inc. will relax a three-year ban on political advertising in a continued policy shift after its takeover by billionaire Elon Musk.
The company said on Tuesday that it will expand the political advertising it permits in coming weeks to “facilitate public conversation around important topics” and align its advertising policy with those of TV and other media outlets, with further details to be announced.
While it wasn’t immediately clear how extensive the changes will be, it represents a departure from a global ban on advertisements by candidates, elected officials and political parties first announced in 2019 by Twitter co-founder — and chief executive officer at the time — Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey justified the ban, which attracted the ire of then-President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, by saying that “political message reach should be earned, not bought.”
©AFP 2022 / JIM WATSON
But since Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, he has alleged censorship by the previous leadership of the social media platform and enacted broad changes with little warning. Among other shifts, the company has ended a policy preventing the sharing of Covid misinformation, reinstated the accounts of Trump and other right-wing personalities, and banned users tracking Musk’s private jet.
Twitter currently allows some so-called issue ads or cause-based ads for some economic, environmental and social topics, albeit with restrictions. The company said it will also relax its policy for such cause-based ads in the US.
Political advertising was a minor income source for Twitter before the ban — amounting to less than $3 million in sales during the 2018 US midterm elections. Still, the easing may help a company now struggling to stem losses in ad revenue as brands pull back from the site amid concern about its moderation policies.
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