Social media giant Twitter announced that it will allow political advertisements on its platform. The official Twitter Safety account tweeted, “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 had a complete overhaul starting in October last year, when tech mogul and billionaire Elon Musk purchased the company for $44 billion. The sale was completed on October 28, 2022. Musk even tweeted, “the bird is freed.” The tech billionaire styles himself as an advocate of free speech. He bought the social media platform because he had different ideas about how it should be run and moderated.
Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, there have been controversial changes to the social media platform. These changes include replacing the current staff and changing policies. One particular policy change that has people on edge is the paid verification proposed by Musk. Account holders can pay a subscription fee to have a blue tick next to their profile that shows they have been verified. Previously, blue ticks were only for official accounts and accounts that had amassed a certain level of popularity on the site.
Twitter has also allowed the reinstatement of previously banned individuals on its social media site. This move is to create a clean slate for Twitter, putting the past behind it and giving banned accounts another chance to tweet.
Back in 2019, then-CEO Jack Dorsey announced a ban on political ads on Twitter. This ban was in response to the growing fear of the spread of misleading information on the platform. The ban was placed amid 2020’s political climate where misinformation was steadily growing. It is tricky to fact-check political content, so the management decided to forgo political ads and their revenue altogether. There was a considerable backlash when the ban was announced by Dorsey in a tweet, “political message reach should be earned, not bought.” The ban was held despite opposing opinions and has been in place since then.
Nearly four years later and just a few months after Musk took over, Twitter’s stance on political ads is about to change. The move seems to be revenue motivated. There are doubts about this, however, since the 2018 revenue on political ads was only $18 million in the United States.
There had been hints that the social media platform is allowing political ads again to recoup the initial cost of buying the company. However, Twitter tweeted, “cause-based advertising can facilitate a public conversation around important topics,” meaning the change may not be entirely money-related.
This move is the newest in the Twitter changes saga. In the future, the company foresees more changes in its advertisement policies. The end goal is seemingly to have the same advertisement policies as traditional media like TV and newspaper outlets.
In December 2022, Elon Musk tweeted a poll on whether he should step down as the CEO of Twitter. 57% of users answered yes to him resigning. As of writing, there has been no official word from Twitter on whether Musk will abide by the poll results.