Political ads are coming back to Twitter

Twitter is bringing political ads back to Twitter as the company continues to struggle to find advertisers willing to remain on the social media platform.

Earlier today, the Twitter Safety account took to the platform to announce that the company would be “relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US.” The company also revealed that it plans to “expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks.”

We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, 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.

The Twitter Safety team says that it will “align our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets” and that it will share more about its approval process for those seeking to advertise “as this work progresses.”

Moving forward, we will align our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets. 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.

Twitter had previously allowed political ads on the platform but eventually banned them back in 2019. However, since Elon Musk acquired the company and brought a lot of turmoil to the company by laying off large swaths of the teams dedicated to trust and safety, advertisers have been leaving the social media app in droves.

Most of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising and, since the company has seen its advertising partners drop, it isn’t suspect to think that the company is expanding back into political ads in order to try and replace all of the advertising revenue it has lost over the last few months. We’ll have to see how things shake out when politicians in the country surely attempt to flood the platform with ads.

The company is also considering making personalized ads mandatory on the platform.