X Opens Up to Political Ads Now

Jack Dorsey, who led Twitter, had famously spoken about how political messages outreach needs to be earned and not bought. Under Elon Musk, this ideology has been given the short shrift as the micro-blogging platform, now known as X, is lifting the ban on paid political ads as  part of its commitment to free expression. 

In other words, the more money you spend on the platform, the more you can express. At least that’s how one could interpret this move from the company which had banned political ads back in 2019. Of course, Musk wants us to believe that the spiraling decline in US ad sales, which dropped by 59% year-on-year, has nothing to do with the lifting of the ban. 

A policy framework that overturns the past

In an announcement via a blog post, Twitter says it would continue to apply certain policies around paid political ads in the US that include promotion of false or misleading content or information with an intent to undermine public confidence in an election. This is at variance with the Dorsey era where content referencing “a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, legislation or judicial outcome” was banned. 

Simply put, the new conditions would not allow hashtags that attempt to viral conspiracy theories such as #StopThisSteal though at the moment, the announcement does not define what action would be taken against such posts. “We’re currently expanding our safety and elections teams to focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closely monitoring the platform for emerging threats,” the post says. 

The reasons aren’t too far for us to see

Back in June, the New York Times had questioned Musk’s claim of advertisers coming back with data showing that in five weeks between April 1 and the first week of May, US ad revenues were at $88 million, down 59% from a year earlier. It quoted an internal presentation of X to suggest US weekly sales projections too had dipped and were likely to stay so in the near future. 

The report suggested that the company’s ad sales team was concerned that advertisers may be spooked by a rise in hate speech and pornography on the social network as well as the spike in ads featuring online gambling and marijuana products. Given this scenario, it isn’t surprising that Musk and Co. are looking for political money as election season nears. It is worth mentioning here that Republican Donald Trump got back on X after quitting Twitter.

An ads transparency center that seems opaque

Given that the primaries are currently on, it appears obvious that the company wants to make hay while they can. The announcement says X will host a global advertising transparency  center where anyone can review the promoted political posts. Did you say Meta already has one? Well, yes that’s right but X claims it will have a “robust” screening process to ensure that only eligible groups and campaigns can advertise. 

Of course, it does not mention the eligibility criteria, which we believe could be measured in dollar terms. However, there is a reference to Civic Integrity Policy meant to provide extra layers of protection for a time before and during elections. But, it also adds that policies will be updated to tackle harmful content like voter intimidation or deception and not censoring debate. 

Small mercies that X will add visible labels to posts identified as potentially violating the Civic Integrity Policy. It will be aligned with an updated enforcement philosophy of Freedom of Speech, not Reach, the post added. It also announced other means of platform moderation such as the crowd-sourced fact-checking Community Notes, available in 44 countries. 

Readers would recall that in January Musk had said the micro-blogging platform would expand political advertising after first relaxing its policy for cause-based ads in the US such as those that aim to raise awareness about voter registration.