Twitter is preventing some brands from including COVID-19 in ads

Twitter is taking steps to make sure both advertising and content on the social network are appropriate and don’t muddy the COVID-19 water for their audience.

• Twitter, Facebook, Google Adjust COVID-19 Advertising Policies On The Fly – AdAge

• Twitter broadly bans any COVID-19 tweets that could help the virus spread – TechCrunch

By Andrew Hutchinson for SocialMediaToday
Follow @adhutchinson

After announcing a ban on all ads which mention “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” last month, Twitter has now revised its stance in order to enable some advertisers to mention the virus in selected promotions, based on utility.

As per Twitter:

“In response to the shifting advertising landscape, and in order to support helpful causes during this time, we’re now allowing managed clients and partners to advertise content containing implicit or explicit reference to COVID-19 in certain use cases, with restrictions.”

Those specific use cases will be:

• Adjustments to business practices and/or models in response to COVID-19
• Support for customers and employees related to COVID-19

That will mean that approved brands will be able to advertise changes to their operations and assistance measures, while it will still enable Twitter to restrict exploitative mentions of the virus, and other promotions that could go against the public good.

Specifically, Twitter says that it will not allow ads that include:

• Distasteful references to COVID-19 (or variations)
• Content that may be sensational or likely to incite panic
• Inflated prices on products related to COVID-19

This comes in addition to Twitter’s already stated bans on any ads for face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizers, while Twitter has also implemented restrictions on content that mentions vaccines, treatments and/or test kits.

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