Under Elon Musk’s supervision, Twitter has revoked another restriction. This time, though, the prohibition does not involve controversial people previously barred from the site; rather, it is a global ban on political advertising in 2019.
The social media business intends to expand the range of permitted political advertisements on the site.
Twitter Political Ads
Twitter banned political advertisements in 2019 in response to strong criticism thrown at the app and other social media platforms, such as Facebook, for facilitating the spread of misleading information during elections. Additionally, it barred socially-motivated advertisements.
Former CEO of the bird app, Jack Dorsey, stated that the ban was implemented due to the belief that political message reach must be earned and not purchased.
On Tuesday, though, Twitter tweeted: We believe that cause-related advertising may enhance public discourse on significant issues. Today, we are relaxing our policy on cause-based advertising in the United States. In the next weeks, we also intend to extend the political advertising we authorize.
The corporation stated in another tweet that it will harmonize its advertising policies with television and other media outlets. They are presently reviewing the policy change and will provide additional information shortly.
Read more: Xi Jinping finally admits his mistake about China’s zero-COVID policy
Election Disinformation
Twitter has made progress over the years in preventing the spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform. Indicative of these efforts is the suspension of a number of people judged to be distributors of fake news and propagators of destructive speech.
During the 2020 elections, the site fact-checked the majority of former US President Donald Trump’s tweets. Although others questioned if Twitter was suppressing free speech, the platform has continued to prioritize political content that contains misinformation or deception.
Trump was eventually permanently banned from the bird app for allegedly instigating violence with his tweets during the January 2021 riots in the nation’s capital. The former president then developed his own app in order to continue expressing his views and beliefs online.
However, Elon Musk took over and imposed his absolute free-speech stance. After granting them a blanket amnesty, he has since removed the ban on Trump and other unpopular people.
Numerous celebrities and public figures, including Gigi Hadid, Sara Bareilles, Toni Braxton, Elton John, Jim Carrey, and Whoopi Goldberg, have left the site as a result of these modifications.
Following Musk’s dismissal from the majority of Twitter’s board and the departure of certain employees in response to the billionaire’s hardcore working ultimatum, Twitter’s employment has also been substantially reduced.
The exodus of celebrities, employees, and users of the bird app has also contributed to the rise in popularity of the competing service Mastodon.
Between October and November, the number of monthly active users on Mastodon increased from 300,000 to 2.5 million. In reaction to fears that Twitter may close owing to its decreasing workforce, the app claims that roughly 655,000 users have transferred to their site.
Read more: Twitter company sued for not paying rent worth $136,000 in California office