Twitter relaxes pot ad rules to lure in more advertisers

Twitter under its 420-friendly owner Elon Musk earlier this year became the first major social media company to allow cannabis advertisements. Now, the platform is relaxing those rules in an attempt to lure in more advertisers from U.S. states where marijuana is legal. “Going forward, certified advertisers may feature packaged cannabis products in ad creative,” Twitter said in a post on its website. Previously, cannabis advertisers could not show any products in their ads, nor could they actually promote their sale. “They may also continue responsibly linking to their owned and operated web pages and e-commerce experiences for CBD, THC, and cannabis-related products and services,” Twitter said. The billionaire Tesla CEO has been forced to make huge cost cuts and scramble to find more sources of revenue to justify his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. The platform also removed a ban on political advertisements in January. Still, companies interested in advertising cannabis products on Twitter must comply with a long list of rules. They must be licensed and pre-authorised by Twitter, only target jurisdictions where they are licensed and refrain from targeting anyone under 21, among other policies. Facebook parent Meta, Google and other major tech companies all prohibit cannabis ads. Google does allow ads for FDA-approved CBD products and topical, hemp-derived CBD products with THC content of 0.3% or less in California, Colorado, and Puerto Rico, but not for marijuana even in states where it is legal.