By Sheila Dang
(Reuters) - X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, said Tuesday it would now&nbsp;allow&nbsp;political&nbsp;advertising in the U.S.&nbsp;from&nbsp;candidates&nbsp;and&nbsp;political&nbsp;parties&nbsp;and expand its safety and&nbsp;elections team&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of the 2024 presidential&nbsp;election.
Before billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company in October, Twitter had banned all&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;globally since 2019. In January, Twitter lifted the ban and began&nbsp;allowing "cause-based&nbsp;ads" in the U.S. that raise awareness of issues such as voter registration, and said it planned to expand the types of&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;it would&nbsp;allow&nbsp;on the platform.
The move to&nbsp;allow&nbsp;all&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;in the U.S. could help X grow its revenue at a time when many advertisers have fled or reduced spending on the platform for fear of appearing next to inappropriate content.
In a blog post on Tuesday, X said it would grow its teams to combat content manipulation and "emerging threats".
The company said it would create a global advertising transparency center, which would let&nbsp;users see what&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;were being promoted on X, and added it would continue to prohibit&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;that spread false information or seek to undermine public confidence in an&nbsp;election.
The platform, like other social media companies, has long been criticized by researchers and lawmakers for not doing enough to prevent misleading or false content during major&nbsp;elections.
Since Musk's acquisition, X in particular has faced questions about its readiness for the U.S. presidential&nbsp;election&nbsp;after laying off thousands of employees, including those who had worked on the trust and safety team.
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(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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X will allow political ads from candidates, parties ahead of US election