By Sheila Dang
(Portal) – Twitter Inc said on Tuesday it would expand the types of political ads allowed on the social media platform, an apparent reversal of its 2019 global ban on political ads since the company is owned by Elon Musk is trying to increase sales.
The company tweeted that it would also relax its advertising policy for “event-related advertising” in the United States and bring its advertising policy “in line with that of TV and other media.”
Twitter banned political advertising in 2019 after it and other social media companies like Facebook faced widespread criticism for allowing election misinformation to spread through their services. It also restricted ads related to social purposes.
“We believe that political messaging reach should be earned, not bought,” tweeted Jack Dorsey, then Twitter’s chief executive, announcing the move.
Since Musk took over Twitter in late October, advertisers have fled companies in response to the Tesla CEO laying off thousands of employees, reversing former US President Donald Trump’s permanent suspension and rushing through a paid verification function that led to it led to scammers impersonating public companies on Twitter.
Last month, Musk defended his sweeping cost-cutting measures, saying Twitter faced $3 billion in “negative cash flow” over the next year.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Stephen Coates)