Twitter Inc will reverse its 2019 ban on political ads, the company’s head of trust and safety confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday. This is another attempt by Musk to generate ever-decreasing revenue from the platform.
The company tweeted on Tuesday it would relax its advertising policy for “cause-based ads” in the United States and align its ad policy with TV and other media outlets.
This is a similar policy to Meta Platform’s (META.O) Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube, which allow political advertising. One platform that still bans political ads is the Chinese video app TikTok.
“We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate a public conversation around important topics,” the social media company tweeted.
These ads will include ads that educate or raise awareness of issues such as voter registration, climate change or government programs like the Census, said Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, in an email.
Political ads were banned on Twitter in 2019 after it and other social media companies faced criticism for allowing election misinformation to spread. It also restricted ads related to social causes.
“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” tweeted Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s then-chief executive, in announcing the move.
Last month, Musk said that Twitter had been facing a “negative cash flow” of $3 billion next year.