In an apparent reversal of its global ban on political ads in 2019, Twitter Inc. announced on Tuesday that it would expand the types of political ads that can be displayed on the social media platform in an effort to boost revenue.
In a tweet, the company said that it would also relax its policy on advertising for “cause-based ads” in the United States and would move forward to align its policy on advertising “with that of TV and other media outlets.”
In 2019, Twitter and other social media companies like Facebook were widely criticized for allowing election-related misinformation to spread throughout their services. Ads for social causes were also limited.
Twitter’s then-chief executive tweeted, “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” to announce the move.
Corporate advertisers have fled Twitter since Musk took control at the end of October, when he laid off thousands of employees, reversed Trump’s permanent suspension, and rushed a paid verification feature that led to scammers impersonating publicly traded companies.
Last month, Musk safeguarded his profound expense cutting measures, and said Twitter had been confronting “negative income” of $3 billion one year from now.
