PanamaTimes

Sunday, Oct 25, 2026

Twitter Is Banning Political Ads Seeking Votes Or Money

Twitter Is Banning Political Ads Seeking Votes Or Money

“We’re absolutely going to make mistakes here. But we firmly believe that it’s better for us to start getting it right and giving people ways to tell us how it’s wrong.”
Twitter revealed a long-awaited political ads policy on Friday that banned paid content from candidates, political parties, and government officials, but allowed advertisers to raise awareness around certain causes including environmental issues and social equity.

The policy, which will go into effect next week, will prohibit political ads that reference candidates, parties, government officials, ballot measures, legislation, regulation, directives, or judicial outcomes. It will also ban ads that appeal for votes or solicit financial support for political causes.

When CEO Jack Dorsey announced the company’s initial plan last month, critics wondered how Twitter would define paid political content, much less enforce a complete ban on it. Its policy, however, carves out certain exemptions -including some for news publishers -and will allow for companies and organizations to run ads that advocate for certain causes with some restrictions.

BuzzFeed News had previously reported about Twitter’s plans through discussions the San Francisco-based company was having with advertisers. In those meetings earlier this month, Twitter staffers suggested that ads that spread awareness about issues of national significance would still be allowed, while those advocating for candidates or legislation would be banned.

In a call with reporters on Friday, Twitter’s senior leadership acknowledged that the policy would evolve over time and that the company, which will use a combination of algorithms and human moderators to flag prohibited political ads, will run into problems.

“We’re absolutely going to make mistakes here,” said Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal and policy head. “But we firmly believe that it’s better for us to start getting it right and giving people ways to tell us how it’s wrong.”

In the US, the company said that advertisements from political action committees and tax-exempt social welfare organizations, or 501(c)(4)s, would be prohibited. Twitter will allow, however, advertisements from approved news publishers that reference political coverage but not ads with content that's for or against a political issue. For example, a newspaper can run ads highlighting its coverage of President Donald Trump, but it cannot publish ads that highlight its editorial board’s endorsement of a certain candidate.

The social network will also permit certain “cause-based” advertising without discrimination based on the point of view of those ads, ranging from fracking advocacy to calls to combat global warming. That stated neutrality is in contradiction to fears raised by presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who suggested that Twitter would allow ads from fossil fuel companies while preventing ads from climate change activists, and by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who raised fears about bias in Twitter’s new policy on Monday.

“The Star Chamber’s Censorship Rules get more incoherent,” he tweeted. “Simpler restatement of their policy: ‘Lefty PC propaganda will be allowed; actual “facts” will not. Trust us. We’re Silicon Valley billionaires. And we know best.’”

Twitter’s new policy would still allow those ads from activists so long as they do not “have the primary goal of driving political, judicial, legislative, or regulatory outcomes” and are tied to an organization’s “publicly stated values.”

For cause-based advertising, organizations must go through a certification process and will only be allowed to target users down to the state or province level, not by zip codes. Those advertisers will also be prevented from targeting based on keywords or terms associated with politics, including “liberal” or “conservative.”

Del Harvey, vice president of trust and safety, said that Twitter would maintain a public list of non-targetable words for the sake of transparency. She also noted that Twitter did not anticipate any significant financial impact to its business because of the policy change.

When Dorsey announced late last month that Twitter would “stop all political advertising,” the San Francisco–based company was praised by the likes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Others criticized Twitter, arguing that the policy would favor political incumbents by preventing challengers from gaining name recognition. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called it a move to “silence conservatives.”

On Friday’s call, Gadde and Harvey noted that there will be a learning process in determining what ads are appropriate and acknowledged that bad actors would try to game the system.

“We fully expect this to evolve over time,” said Harvey. The new policy will go into effect on Nov. 22.
Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
Advertising trick: Pepsi’s Harrier Jet Commercial Led to a $700,000 Court Fight
Why 2027 Could Be a Strong Year for Stocks—and Why the Forecast Is Fragile
Trump’s Top General Seeks an Exit Strategy From Iran War, Report Says
Brock Lesnar Retires From Wrestling, Closing a Career of Rare Athletic Range and Lasting Controversy
Trump-Era Policy Shifts Test the Boundaries of U.S. Institutions
Weight-Loss Drug Boom Tests the Limits of Prescription Advertising Rules
Breaking With the Past: One of the World’s Smallest Countries Changes Its Name
AI Is Remaking the US Economy, From GDP Growth to iPhone Prices
Cuba’s Grid Fails Again as Fuel Crisis Deepens
Nazca Lines Flight Crash Kills Thirteen as Peru Suspends Aerodiana
OpenAI Faces Demands for Full Disclosure After Models Breach Hugging Face
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Why Americans Queue for $15 Ice Cream and a $100 Caviar Pint
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
Trump Readies New Tariffs as Temporary Global Levy Nears Expiry
Morgan Stanley Builds a Wall Street Lead in AI Infrastructure Finance
High Prices Push Coffee Drinkers Toward Whole Beans and Home Brewing
Spain Defeats Argentina in Extra Time to Win Second World Cup
Venezuela’s Earthquake Devastation Turns U.S. Investment Opportunity Into a Thirty-Seven Billion Dollar Reconstruction Challenge
Ukrainian Drones Strike Wildberries Warehouses Deep Inside Russia
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Trump Administration Pressures Banks to Restrict Financial Access for Undocumented Immigrants
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
The AI Race Enters Its Infrastructure Era
Colombia Influencer Dies After Cosmetic Procedure at Unlicensed Bogota Salon
A Quiet Bastille Day: France Grapples with World Cup Heartbreak and Leftover Fireworks
Spain in Ecstasy: "We Feel Unbeatable, We Taught the Whole World a Lesson"
On the Island That Did Not Yield to Trump, There Is No Electricity, and 10 Million Live in Darkness
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Japanese Technology Firm Fujitsu Launches Advanced Artificial Intelligence Tool for Corporate Disclosures
South Africa Officially Launches Nationwide Campaign for Highly Contested Local Government Elections
United Kingdom Commits Additional Funding for Unexploded Ordnance Clearance in Laos
Singapore Announces Stringent New Greenhouse Gas Regulations for Commercial Cooling Systems
Cambodia and Thailand Hold High-Level Border Security Talks at United Nations Headquarters
Myanmar Military Government and China Sign Major Agreement to Upgrade Media and Cultural Cooperation
Knife Attack at Swiss Train Station Leaves Three Injured in Suspected Act of Domestic Terrorism
Transnational Extortion Gang Threatens Canadian Police With Army of One Thousand Armed Operatives
Australia Imposes Forty-Two-Day Quarantine on Cruise Ship Passengers Following Deadly Hantavirus Outbreak
International Monetary Fund Unlocks Seven Hundred Million United States Dollars for Sri Lanka Following Economic Reforms
Australia Launches Record One Point Four Billion Dollar Lawsuit Against Chemical Giant 3M Over Contamination
China and Canada Foreign Ministers Meet in Ottawa in Effort to Stabilize Strained Diplomatic Ties
Indonesia Demands Urgent United Nations Security Council Reform Amid Escalating Global Conflicts
Extreme Weather Patterns Trigger Severe Drought in Madagascar and Destructive Flooding in East Africa
Indian State of Karnataka Faces Political Upheaval as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Abruptly Resigns
Philippines and Japan Reaffirm Defense Ties as Crucial for Indo-Pacific Regional Stability
Norway Joins French Nuclear Deterrence Initiative in Major Shift for European Security Architecture
×