Twitter loosens restrictions on political advertising

Twitter will relax a three-year ban on political advertising in a continued policy shift after its $44 billion takeover by Elon Musk.

The company announced Tuesday the social platform will expand the political advertising it permits in coming weeks to "facilitate public conversation around important topics" and align its advertising policy with those of TV and other media outlets, with further details to be announced.

While it wasn't immediately clear how extensive the changes will be, the move represents a departure from a global ban on advertisements by candidates, elected officials and political parties first announced in 2019 by Twitter co-founder -- and then-CEO -- Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey had justified the ban, which attracted the ire of then-President Donald Trump's re-election campaign, by saying that "political message reach should be earned, not bought."

But since Musk's takeover of Twitter, he has claimed censorship by the previous leadership of the platform while enacting broad changes with little warning. Among other shifts, the company has ended a policy preventing the sharing of covid-19 misinformation, reinstated the accounts of Trump and other political personalities, and banned users tracking Musk's private jet.

Twitter allows so-called issue ads or cause-based ads for some economic, environmental and social topics, albeit with restrictions. The company said it will also relax its policy for such cause-based ads in the United States.

Political advertising was a minor income source for Twitter before the ban -- amounting to less than $3 million in sales during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

Still, the easing will likely help a company now struggling to stem losses in ad revenue as brands pull back from the site amid concern about its moderation policies.

Information for this article was contributed by Kurt Wagner of Bloomberg News (TNS).

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