Elon Musk to allow political ads back on Twitter

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Twitter said it is planning to lift some sanctions that were placed on political ads in 2019 so as to allow political advertising to be displayed back on the social media platform, according to a Tweet posted by the company on Tuesday. 

"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 said in a Tweet.

"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," it added as a thread. 

Some of the categories Twitter aims to relax its ban on include: civic engagement, economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social-equity causes.

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

Twitter said it banned political ads in November 2019, when the platform was still under Jack Dorsey's leadership.

"We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought," he said at the time the decision was taken - although some exceptions were made for ads that were politics-related, such as voter registration.

Back then, political ads used to account for a small percentage of Twitter's advertising revenue. 

In 2021, ad revenues were estimated to total about 89% of the company's $5.1 billion profits. 

But when Musk took over the platform in October last year, some companies decided to halt spending over concerns about how the new CEO plans to run the company.

In a note destined to reassure advertisers, Musk said, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"

Elon Musk: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Within hours of Elon’s statement, his fans filled Twitter with racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, and transphobic hate speech.

— Gabe Sanchez  (@iamgabesanchez) October 29, 2022

In a bid to further soothe their concerns, he offered to meet with clients directly.

An analysis conducted by research firm Pathmatics revealed that about 70% of Twitter's top 100 ad spenders before Elon Musk's takeover were not spending on the service as of the week ending December 18.

Read more: Young, Beautiful, White? Swiss Student Exposes Twitter Algorithm Bias

On October 22, 2022, a tech firm revealed that Twitter's research suggests that tweets from right-leaning political groups and news outlets are amplified more than those from the left.

Flawed image-cropping algorithms favored white people over black people. The platform announced in April that it was doing research to see if its algorithms were causing "unintentional harm".

On January 1, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower who exposed Facebook's internal documents that allegedly go on to show how the social networking site failed to safeguard users from harmful content in 2021, said she informed Elon Musk to make Twitter's algorithm public "if he wants to have the public square open."

The Facebook whistleblower said the reason why social media companies aggressively push away government intervention is that accountability could result in at least 20% profit margin losses.

Haugen, who used to work as the product manager of Facebook's civic integrity team, spoke on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday to discuss "how social media is shaping our politics."

Speaking on her experience exposing Facebook's malpractice, she exposed tens of thousands of internal Facebook documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and The Wall Street Journal in 2021.

"One of the most important things Elon Musk could do to prove that he wants to have the public square is he could publish the algorithms," Haugen said, stressing that "he'd have more help. It'd be cheaper for him. He'd be more profitable."

"Let's just start facing the facts and stop pretending they're some little company in a garage," she added, noting that companies ought to be treated like "publishers".

Read more: $2 billion suit against Meta launched for spreading violence