Abandoned by advertisers, X.com turns to political parties

The social network, which is not in the best of financial situations, could find an interesting financial windfall in the upcoming political deadlines.

The American elections are fast approaching, and social networks will once again be buzzing with announcements and positions from personalities of all persuasions. So why not take advantage of it, at least financially?

A change in… policy

In 2019, the CEO of what was still called Twitter, Jack Dorsey, made an important decision: no more political ads on his platform. ” Reach for political messaging should be earned, not bought “, he said then, almost a year before the 2020 US elections. However, this did not prevent the social network from being a battleground and an important showcase for candidates, their parties and their activists. .

But today, Twitter is called X.com, and the rules of the site are gradually changing, canceling in stride what had been decided before. At the beginning of the year, the platform had already relaxed the restrictions on ads ” based on a cause “, emphasizing the importance of a ” public conversation around important topics “. Could a return to a more political field be beginning? Yes, because the company just announced in a blog post: “ Building on our commitment to free speech, we will also allow political advertising. »

A special force devoted to politics

Freedom of expression has been honored on the social network since its takeover by Elon Musk. We can therefore expect that all sides of the political chessboard will jump on the occasion, but not without a certain moderation. Indeed, X.com has explicitly indicated that it will closely monitor the messages broadcast on its platform. The society ” apply specific policies to paid political messages “, including rules prohibiting ” promoting false or misleading content “as well as the contents” intended to undermine public confidence in an election “.

To ensure compliance with these rules, the social network is said to be recruiting a team to monitor political messages and advertisements. This one will have the difficult task of focus on combating manipulation, discovering inauthentic accounts, and closely monitoring the platform for new threats “. We can only wish him good luck, given the atmosphere that reigns on the platform, on which Donald Trump has just reappeared.

All this demonstrates in any case the importance of politics for the company, which had nevertheless carried out numerous dismissals in its moderation teams several months ago. With the approach of the American elections, the objective would be to benefit from the money of the electoral campaigns, which take up more and more space on social networks. Moreover, a greater prominence given to political messages on X.com could give parties an additional reason not to shy away from the platform in favor of one of its competitors.

Source : Engadget