Elon Musk’s Twitter Will Allow More Political Ads, Reversing Its Global Ban of 2019

Under Elon Musk's leadership, Twitter has overturned yet another ban. But this time, it is a worldwide ban on political advertisements in 2019. It does not this time involve any contentious people who were previously barred from the platform. The social media corporation intends to increase the kinds of political advertisements that are allowed on the site, as per reports. Following heavy criticism levelled at the app and other social media platforms like Facebook for facilitating the spread of false information during elections, Twitter banned political advertising in 2019. Additionally, it outlawed socially conscious advertisements. Former CEO of the bird app Jack Dorsey stated that the prohibition was put in place because they believed political message reach should be earned rather than purchased. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="670"] Image credit- ABP News[/caption] However, Twitter stated on Tuesday: "We think that advertising with a social cause may encourage public discourse on significant issues. We are relaxing our restriction on cause-based advertisements in the US as of right now. In the upcoming weeks, we also intend to increase the amount of political advertising we allow." The business stated in another tweet that it would synchronise its advertising strategy with that of TV and other media sources. They are still considering the policy modification and will provide additional information soon. Over the years, Twitter has made progress in preventing the propagation of false information and hate speech on the site. The suspension of multiple individuals who were identified as spreaders of damaging speech and distributors of fake news is evidence of these efforts. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit- India Today[/caption] For instance, during the 2020 elections, the site fact-checked the majority of tweets from former US President Donald Trump. Twitter has stepped up its support for political content that contains false information, despite concerns that it may be curtailing free speech. Trump eventually received a permanent ban from the bird app when it was claimed that his tweets during the rioting in the Capital in January 2021 had incited violence. In order to continue expressing his viewpoints online, the former president later developed his own app. Elon Musk, though, took control and imposed his free speech absolutist viewpoint. After granting them all amnesty, he later lifted the ban on Trump and other contentious individuals. Numerous popular figures and celebrities have left the site as a result of these changes, including Gigi Hadid, Sara Bareilles, Toni Braxton, Elton John, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and many others. The employment at Twitter has also been significantly decreased as a result of Musk's firing of the majority of the board members and several employees quitting their jobs in response to his "hardcore" working ultimatum. The celebrity, employee, and user migration of the bird app has also fueled the growth of Mastodon, a rival application. Between October and November, Mastodon reported a rise in monthly active users from 300,000 to 2.5 million. According to the app, 655,000 users have switched to their platform out of fear that Twitter may shut down due to its decreased workforce.