Two weeks ago Twitter announced that it is going to ban all kinds of political advertisements on Twitter. The social media company released details of its ban on political ads on Friday. Under the policy, paid political content won’t be allowed.
The ban includes any ad that references a candidate, political party, government official, ballot measure, or legislative or judicial outcome. The ban also applies to all ads — even non-political ones — from candidates, political parties and elected or appointed government officials. It also includes appeals for votes and solicitations for campaign contributions. The company said in a statement, “We define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome.”
However, Twitter has made an exception for the ban. According to the company, they are allowing ads related to social causes such as climate change, gun control, and abortion. The vice president of Twitter, Del Harvey said the company will keep a public list of banned keywords that it will update. the list will be released next week.
The ban takes effect November 22. News organizations will be exempt so they can promote stories that cover political issues.