Politicians will soon be able to openly buy influence on social media platform Twitter.
This week, Twitter made a U-turn on political advertising as it plans to align its policies with others media platforms.
“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,” said Twitter’s Safety Department on Tuesday. The platform prohibited political advertising in 2019.
The move seems in line with owner Elon Musk’s push for free speech on the platform. Twitter says cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics.
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“Moving forward, we will align our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets,” says Twitter.
Twitter policies on political and cause-based advertising could be key to finding that sweet spot of enabling free speech on the platform without causing too much offense. It’s Twitter. There will be offenses. But the regulation could prevent an offense from turning into hate speech.
“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,” adds Twitter.
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Former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey’s ideals were in contrast with Musk’s on political advertising (and other things that he’s changed since taking over). Musk has also been accused of prioritising profit over people on numerous occasions.
Dorsey believed that “political message reach should be earned, not bought”.
Twitter will, in the coming week, allow political parties to pay for reach — which ultimately translates to paying for influence.
Source: Twitter
