Twitter set to reverse ban on political ads to boost revenue
Twitter said Monday that it plans to lift the ban on political ads in the “coming weeks.” The company originally enforced the ban in 2019. At the time, it said that “political messaging reach should be earned, not bought.” Twitter charted a different path than other social networks like Facebook and Instagram, which allowed political ads.
The social network announcement comes at a time when advertisers have been reducing spending on the platform. In November, company owner Elon Musk blamed “activism groups” for pressuring advertisers to stop ads on Twitter. Musk also fell out with Apple when the company briefly halted ads on the platform and accused the iPhone maker of hating “free speech in America.”
Additionally, Twitter said it is relaxing its rules on cause-based ads — ads related to topics like social equality and environmental change — in the US. The company didn’t actually provide details on the terms it will change. , but it mentioned on its ad policy page that cause-based ads should be geo-restricted.
“Advertisers whose cause-based ads target only within the United States are exempt from the aforementioned restrictions,” it said.
Historically, Twitter allowed cause-based ads on the condition that advertisers can’t apply targeted filters on those campaigns. But Musk’s management team is ready to change that. In terms of having guardrails around these types of ads, Twitter said it will “first make sure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people.”
In the future, we will align our advertising policy with that of television and other media. As with all policy changes, we’ll first make sure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter. We will share more details as this work progresses.
Twitter said Monday that it plans to lift the ban on political ads in the “coming weeks.” The company originally enforced the ban in 2019. At the time, it said that “political messaging reach should be earned, not bought.” Twitter charted a different path than other social networks like Facebook and Instagram, which allowed political ads.
The social network announcement comes at a time when advertisers have been reducing spending on the platform. In November, company owner Elon Musk blamed “activism groups” for pressuring advertisers to stop ads on Twitter. Musk also fell out with Apple when the company briefly halted ads on the platform and accused the iPhone maker of hating “free speech in America.”
Additionally, Twitter said it is relaxing its rules on cause-based ads — ads related to topics like social equality and environmental change — in the US. The company didn’t actually provide details on the terms it will change. , but it mentioned on its ad policy page that cause-based ads should be geo-restricted.
“Advertisers whose cause-based ads target only within the United States are exempt from the aforementioned restrictions,” it said.
Historically, Twitter allowed cause-based ads on the condition that advertisers can’t apply targeted filters on those campaigns. But Musk’s management team is ready to change that. In terms of having guardrails around these types of ads, Twitter said it will “first make sure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people.”
In the future, we will align our advertising policy with that of television and other media. As with all policy changes, we’ll first make sure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter. We will share more details as this work progresses.
