Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Twitter announced details of its new policy on accepting political advertising on Friday, which effectively stops candidates and campaigns from buying advertising.
The bans include advertising purchases by political action committees, or PACs, and 501(C)(4) non-profit organizations.
Although the "political content" policy will prevent promotion of candidates and legislation, "caused-based advertising," covering topics such as climate change, abortion or animal rights will be restricted but not banned. The separation comes after comments from issues advocates who were concerned their advertising would be banned after Twitter announced its political ban in October.
"Twitter globally prohibits the promotion of political content. We have made this decision based on our belief that political message reach should be earned, not bought," it said in a statement on Friday. The new Twitter policy means that advertising on its platform cannot seek political or regulatory outcomes, and political keywords such as "liberal" or "conservative" will not target users in data-driven Twitter marketing profiles. A longer list of banned keywords is expected to be released next week.
Friday's action is a response to close analysis of social media platforms over their handling of political advertising, particularly as the 2020 elections approaches.
