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Elon Musk Lifts Twitter’s Political Ad Ban in Time For Election Season

The social media giant had banned political ads on its platform worldwide in 2019.

Twitter announced Tuesday that it’s lifting its years-long ban on political advertisements, enabling candidates to freely purchase ads again with a few caveats. In a blog post, the platform, now known as X, wrote that it’s overturning the ban to “build on our commitment to free expression.” The ban’s lift is limited to the U.S. for now, but there are plans to soon expand the policy globally. Ex-CEO Jack Dorsey said he implemented the political ad ban in 2019 because he believed “political message reach should be earned, not bought.” Twitter says it will not allow advertisements that promote “false or misleading content,” including misinformation intended to undermine confidence in an election. The platform says its adding positions to its safety and elections teams to hold the political ads in check. Elon Musk, who’s typically quick to explain and brag about sweeping changes at Twitter, had not commented on the ban’s lift by 1:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday.