Twitter will soon start allowing more political ads

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Twitter says it will “expand” political ads on the platform as it struggles to please advertisers and generate revenue.

A tweet from the official Twitter Safety account outlines the company’s plans to expand its advertising base. The tweet says that the updated advertising policy will go into effect in “the coming weeks.”

In addition to expanding political advertising, the platform also says it will loosen its ad policy surrounding cause-based ads.

“Cause-based ads” refers to things like climate change awareness, social equality, and similar topics.

We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, 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 Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 3, 2023

Political ads have been banned on Twitter since 2019, ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Now, it’s scrapping that policy likely to build revenue for the company.

Details and rules surrounding upcoming political ads on Twitter are still lacking.

The platform hasn’t shared how it will monitor political ads other than a follow-up tweet that says it will “align advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets.”

Moving forward, we will align our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets. As with all policy changes, we will first ensure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter. We’ll share more details as this work progresses.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 3, 2023

Regarding cause-based ads, the company is relaxing its restrictions for advertisers in the United States. Twitter says ads can’t have the primary goal of driving political or regulatory outcomes.

However, a new entry to the advertising guidelines page says that ads targeting only the United States are exempt from those restrictions.

It’s unclear if the company plans to expand this new policy outside the United States. In fact, we don’t know exactly when these policy changes will occur. So look out for more politically driven ads on Twitter soon.

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