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Updated April 25, 2013

Twitter Ads empower advertisers to reach a wide audience with an amplified voice. As with all advertising platforms, there are certain obligations to follow when using Twitter for advertising. First and foremost, advertisers are responsible for all their promoted content on Twitter. This includes complying with applicable laws and regulations regarding online advertisements.

Our Ads Policy Team has developed guidelines to help advertisers create clear, safe, and legal promotions on the Twitter platform. We characterize the guidelines according to several key principles, which apply to all participants using the Twitter Ads platform. They are:

      1. Respect Twitter's Terms of Service, rules and all best practices.
      2. Comply with legal requirements and keep users safe.
      3. Don't distribute spam, harmful code or other disruptive content.
      4. Promote honest, authentic and relevant content. Be transparent and accurate.
      5. Set high editorial standards for the Twitter content you create.
      6. Set high standards for the off-Twitter connections you create.

Please also be sure to review our Promoted Trend and Twitter Ads profile guidelines. We may amend our guidelines from time to time in response to user feedback, changes to local laws, the regulatory and cultural landscape, and Twitter product changes. Please check back periodically to review the most current version. We will communicate to you directly with any changes that significantly affect your existing campaigns.

The Six Key Principles of Advertising on Twitter:

1. Respect Twitter's Terms of Service, Rules, and all Best Practices.

Advertisers should understand and follow all of Twitter's Rules and Best practices, not only those that are unique to Twitter Ads. All of Twitter's Guidelines and Best Practices, including those for advertisers, are listed on our Help Center. In addition, be respectful of your partnership with Twitter. We ask that you:

• do not offer any part of your Twitter Ads access for sale to any third parties (e.g., selling verification or reselling Twitter Ads).
• do not encourage users to violate our Terms of Service or applicable laws, or to post private information about themselves or others.
• do not promote services or applications that assist users in violating the Terms of Service.

2. Comply with legal requirements and keep users safe.

In addition to general policy considerations, some Twitter Ads have restrictions based on legal, regulatory and user safety factors. These policies apply to the content of your Twitter Ads, as well as the underlying products or services that you advertise. In most cases, our policies are consistent with industry policy standards; however, our policies are partially informed by the unique nature of the Twitter platform, the evolving legal landscape, and our immediate concern for our users' safety.

In cases where our policies limit an advertiser's ability to promote a particular product or service, we will state the reason. We cannot provide legal advice, however. To ensure that you're in compliance with applicable legal requirements, always check local laws and regulations before running promoted content.

The following services and industries have legal, cultural or safety restrictions:

• Regulated pharmaceutical products
• Alcohol products
• Adult sexual products and services
  • contraceptives and sexual aids and toys
  • adult or pornographic magazines, books and films
  • dating sites containing sexually explicit language or images
  • internet pornography
  • modeled clothing (such as lingerie) that is sexual in nature
  • nudity, partial nudity or other adult sexual content
  • TIP Adult dating and marriage services are permitted, provided the service is not explicitly sexual, does not reference or endorse prostitution or other illegal activity, and is clearly directed to adults over 18.
• Gambling services
  • Services that assist or encourage gambling activities are prohibited, including forecasts and winning strategies.
  • Online gambling and fantasy sports sites involving the exchange of money are prohibited.
  • TIP Review our Guidelines for Contests when promoting prizes or contests on Twitter:
    • Provide users with clear instructions. Describe explicitly how the winner(s) will be selected.
    • The payment structure for any sales, subscriptions, or sweepstakes you offer may not be misleading or deceptive.
    • It is your responsibility to comply with any applicable laws or regulations governing contests, sweepstakes or lotteries.
  • UK Policy: Licensed gambling services are permitted, provided advertisers targeting the United Kingdom are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
• Regulated financial products
  • UK Policy: Wholesale investment firms, provider firms and deposit takers, credit unions, insurance firms and retail intermediaries are permitted. Advertisers targeting the UK are responsible for complying with relevant industry codes set forth by the Financial Services Authority and Advertising Standards Authority.
• Tobacco and tobacco accessories
• Weapons
  • Firearms, paintball guns, BB guns, knives, stun guns, brass knuckles, ammunition and related weapons and accessories are prohibited.
• Unacceptable business practices. This may include, but is not limited to, ads for weight loss, miracle cures, getting rich quick, loan modifications, and penny stocks.
• Unlawful goods and services 
• Hate, “anti,” or violence
  • Services promoting hate or “anti” concepts or speech
  • Services that advocate against an individual or protected group based on race or ethnic origin, national origin, color, religion, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status
  • Services that promote or attempt to glorify self-harm or related content
  • Services that promote violence against people or animals
• Sensitive content
  • Organizations or individuals associated with, or promoting, hate, criminal, terrorist-related content
  • Inappropriate targeting upon or after a global, sensitive, event such as a natural disaster, high-profile death, or political uprising
  • Offensive, vulgar, or obscene language 
  • Inflammatory content, particularly of a religious nature
  • Ads explicitly targeting minors
• Unauthorized sale or resale of tickets
  • Due to legal and business considerations, reselling tickets without prior authorization, or the sale of counterfeit tickets, is prohibited. If you're unsure whether you're about to sell tickets that are fake, or you don't have permission to sell them, please contact the organization or hosts of the event.
• Trade restrictions
  • Applicable government trade restrictions
• Counterfeit goods

3. Don't distribute spam, harmful code or other disruptive content.

Unsolicited content is annoying to users. Keep Twitter engaging by not spamming users with unwanted interactions. We don't tolerate abuse towards users and will suspend accounts that distribute phishing links, malware, or other harmful code or sites that alter the user's machine without notification or consent.

• Do not spam users. Keep in mind that the following behaviors may be considered indicative of spam:
  • posting multiple, duplicate updates
  • sending unsolicited @replies or mentions
  • aggressive following and unfollowing behavior to draw user attention to your Twitter account
  • creating multiple accounts (either manually or using automated tools) with overlapping uses
• Promoted content may not lead to phishing links, malware, or other harmful code or sites that alter the user's machine without notification or user consent.
• Please review the Twitter Rules and Automation Guidelines for further information about behaviors that users may consider annoying or spammy. Keep in mind that violations of these rules may result in account suspension.

4. Promote honest, authentic and relevant content, and target such content responsibly.

Be honest when advertising. Honesty builds trust within the Twitter community and with the followers of your brand. Users will be more likely to engage with your account if the content you promote is transparent, accurate and relevant. Don't subject users to promoted content that isn't relevant to your brand or product.

• Do not use our ad products to mislead users about who you are. Please review the Trademark Policy for Twitter Ads for further information about using trademarked terms in your ads.
• Create your own Tweets, or get permission from the authors of the Tweets and retweets you use. You may not include another user's content in Promoted Tweets without their permission.
  • TIP You may use Twitter's Retweet feature to turn Tweets from affiliated accounts into Promoted Tweets with the permission of the original author/owner.
• When acquiring user information, make accessible your privacy policy information explaining what data is being collected and how it’s being used. This should be posted on the same page where this information is collected.
  
  • When using Twitter’s Promotion Cards, you must include a link to your Privacy Policy directly in your card. You can add this link through the Campaign User Interface.
  • Pages where users are asked to enter private and confidential information must use a secure processing server (https://). Examples of private and confidential information include: credit card numbers, bank information, and social security numbers.
• Target users responsibly. Do not select targeting criteria that may be inappropriate or that could reveal sensitive information about users. Do not target content to an audience that will find your content offensive.
  • For more information about responsible targeting, please review Twitter’s Sensitive categories and Advertising potentially offensive content policy and best practice resources.
• Trending topics represent popular conversations on Twitter at any moment. Do not target trending topic keywords unless your Tweets are relevant to that conversation.
• Do not attempt to manipulate the resonance of Twitter Ads.

5. Set high editorial standards for the Twitter content you create.

Your account, Twitter Ads copy, and URLs you include within a Promoted Tweet must meet the below style and safety guidelines and abide by Twitter's Best Practices and Rules. Twitter's user base is diverse and varied, with individuals who have wide-ranging interests and sensitivities. With that in mind, we encourage you to use these guidelines to help us make sure that promoted content remains engaging to all users.

• Your profile photo, header photo, and background may not use animated images (e.g., animated GIFs).
• You may not include excessive or unnecessary capitalization or punctuation to draw attention to your ad copy. Excessive, gimmicky capitalization and punctuation distract the user and hinder legibility.
• Don't include punctuation, spaces or symbols in your hashtags; these cause a break in the hashtag.
• Twitter's character limit celebrates creativity within a constraint, but your Twitter Ads copy should be legible and clear. Use correct grammar and spelling.
• Don't include content or language that could offend or shock your audience (e.g., profanity).
  • TIP For detailed best practices about how to not risk offending your audience, please see our Advertising Rules and Best Practices for Potentially Offensive Content.

6. Set high standards for the off-Twitter connections you create.

In-tweet links connect users to a world of information and content outside of the Twitter.com domain. Help us extend a positive, engaging experience throughout all user interactions on your promoted content by observing good URL habits.

• Your URLs must be valid and may not lead to non-functioning sites or error pages.
• You may not change the end destination or landing page of your URLs after you have promoted them.
• Your URLs may not include excessive redirects.
• URLs may not generate pop-ups or pop-unders.
• Your URL may not require a user to sign in to view the landing page content.

What happens when an advertiser violates these policies

We take violations of Twitter's policies, Rules and Terms of Service very seriously. We examine reported violations and take action where appropriate, and we will notify you directly of any changes we make to your campaigns or advertising account.

The following actions may be taken on a campaign or advertiser upon receipt of complaints:

• Limit Targeting - we may take measures to restrict the targeting of your campaigns to followers only or remove restricted or inappropriate keywords or interests.
• Campaign or Tweet removal - we may take measures to remove a Promoted Tweet from your campaign or suspend your campaign.
• Removal from Twitter Ads - we may remove and/or suspend your account from the Twitter advertising program. You are responsible for the content of your accounts, Tweets, and all promotions you run on the Twitter Ads platform.

Contact Twitter

If you are an existing advertiser with a question about a policy or are experiencing issues with your campaigns, you may reach us by signing in to your advertiser account, and clicking “Need Help”. If you're not an advertiser yet or you're a user with questions and/or complaints, please review this Help Center page for more information on what to do next.