Twitter to relax ban on political advertising ‘in the coming weeks’

Twitter announced Tuesday it had relaxed the platform’s policy for “cause-based” advertising as well as restrictions on political advertising “in the coming weeks.”

“We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics,” Twitter’s safety team wrote Tuesday afternoon.

“Today, we’re relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the U.S. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks,” the team added.

The announcement comes just over three years after the microblogging platform announced it would “stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.”

In October 2019, the company’s co-founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey announced the move in an 11-part Twitter thread. Although internet advertising is an “incredibly powerful and very effective” tool for commercial advertisers, that power could bring “significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions,” Dorsey wrote.

Paying to boost the reach of political messages could also influence people’s decision to follow an account or retweet a post, Dorsey noted. And that is something that “should not be compromised by money.”

Tuesday’s announcement appears to relax the 3-year-old ban, which included ads by political parties, candidates or elected officials — and it comes about two months into Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

The $44 billion deal was followed by a turbulent time of layoffs, resignations, and a dramatic drop in advertisers. The transition also brought the reinstatement of previously banned accounts and an explosion in hate speech according to a report by Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog nonprofit.

In November, the South African-born billionaire blamed the company’s “massive drop in revenue” on the pressure put on advertisers by activist groups who are “trying to destroy free speech in America,” he tweeted. “Extremely messed up!” Musk added.

Moving forward, the company said it would align its advertising policy “with that of TV and other media outlets,” adding that it would “share more details as this work progresses.”

In March 2021, Meta lifted a ban on political ads on Facebook and Instagram, which had been put in place after the 2020 presidential election.

With News Wire Services