Twitter will lift the ban on political parties buying advertising space

In an attempt to increase revenue, Twitter will remove the previously imposed ban on all advertisements from political parties and movements. The ban was imposed by the previous chief executive, Jack Dorsey, to address the misuse of ads to promote disinformation, hate speech, and slanderous attacks against opposing candidates.

A Twitter executive recently confirmed to Reuters that the ban on paid political ads will be lifted in the foreseeable future. Twitter is considered (especially in the United States) the reference social network for the world of politics, journalism and more generally for those who keep up to date with current events and issues concerning political activism.

The social network’s official account tweeted a laconic announcement on Tuesday, explaining that rules on advertising for social causes would soon be relaxed. The ban was introduced in 2019, ahead of the (admittedly extremely contested and polarizing) presidential elections to be held the following year. “Politics has to earn people’s attention, it can’t buy it,” a Twitter spokesman commented – perhaps with a slightly cloying rhetoric.

The reinstatement of political-themed advertisements should bring an important shot in the arm to Twitter’s ailing coffers. None of the major competitors had introduced policies similar to those of Twitter.

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. It is an extremely higher figure than the real value of the social network, which has been in deep economic difficulty for some time and has proved to be an inexhaustible source of problems and controversies. Nothing Elon Musk hadn’t been widely warned about. Several years ago Disney had expressed interest in buying the social network (at a lower price) giving up after realizing that the platform would cause more problems than advantages, with the risk of ruining the company’s reputation.