Linda Yaccarino’s X Reverses 2019 Ban On Political Adverts

Linda Yaccarino’s X Reverses 2019 Ban On Political Adverts
Womenleading Tech
By Womenleading Tech



X will allow political advertising on its platform again, saying it wants to support “people’s right to accurate and safe political discourse.”

Twitter, as it was then, banned political advertising on the platform in 2019 following criticism of its handling of disinformation and misinformation on the platform. The same concerns were levelled at Facebook, too.

“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” tweeted Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s then-chief executive, in announcing the move.

These new changes will come into force in the US first, just in time for the Presidential election and hyper-online Republican primary process.

The company said that it will launch a global advertising transparency centre in order to let everyone have a look at political posts prompted on X “in addition to robust screening processes to ensure only eligible groups and campaigns are able to advertise.”

It will also lean on its Community Notes feature to help give posts additional context and information.

X’s new political ads policy will focus on its “Freedom of Speech, Not Reach” maxim. It will add “publicly visible labels” to posts that it deems to violate its Civic Integrity Policy and let users know when their reach has been restricted.

It will also implement new policies for paid-for political promoted posts.

“This will include prohibiting the promotion of false or misleading content, including false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election, while seeking to preserve free and open political discourse,” it said.

“We’ll also provide a global advertising transparency centre so that everyone can review political posts being promoted on X, in addition to robust screening processes to ensure only eligible groups and campaigns are able to advertise.”

In its announcement of the new rules, X said that it is “currently expanding” its safety and elections teams “to focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closely monitoring the platform for emerging threats.”

This will likely be some task for CEO Linda Yaccarino, after owner and chief technology officer Elon Musk, gutted these teams when he took control of Twitter.

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