Twitter is set to lift the restrictions it has placed on political ads. This would make it possible for issue-based paid content to be visible on the platform, with political advertisements also making a comeback “in the coming weeks.”
This announcement comes after advertisers hurriedly left the platform following Elon Musk’s takeover in October 2022. Following the change in leadership in the platform there has been an increase in hate speech as many previously banned right-wing accounts have been allowed back on the platform.
The move for Twitter to allow political advertisements would allow its advertising to match the advertising available on other platforms such as Meta’s Facebook and Google’s YouTube. The one platform where political advertising is banned is ByteDance’s TikTok.
This change could bring in more revenues for Twitter as the platform has not allowed political ads since 2019. The specific time in which the company will allow the expansion to political advertising has not yet been disclosed, with the so far announcement simply saying the change will happen in the coming “weeks”.
This is one of the latest moves made by Musk who has been working to change many of the policies that CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey had put in place. The reason Dorsey had banned political advertising in November 2019 was that as he had said paying for further political reach “has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle.”
According to Twitter’s former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal political advertising brought in less than $3 million in the 2018 midterm cycle, which is a small percentage when considering that in 2018 Twitter made $3 billion in revenue.
