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Paid Partnerships Policy

What are Paid Partnerships?

X defines paid partnerships as the involvement of a third-party brand providing compensation or incentives to a user, such as an influencer or content creator, to promote their product or service. 

This includes mentions or endorsements of products or services under the following conditions:  

  • The products or services are gifted by or on behalf of a brand. 

  • You receive compensation for promoting these products or services, either through monetary payments or in-kind contributions. 

  • These products or services generate a commission for you from sales, for instance, through affiliate links or discount codes. 

  • You have a commercial agreement involving these products or services, such as your role as a brand ambassador. 

Our policies for Paid Partnerships are distinct from our Advertising policies. Content prohibited under paid partnerships may be permissible in X Ads. If you are interested in promoting X Ads, please refer to our X Advertising Policies.

 

Rules for Paid Partnerships

  • All content on X must comply with the X Rules.

  • Posts that are part of a Paid Partnership published as an organic Post must include #ad indicating the commercial nature of such content.

  • You are responsible for ensuring that any Paid Partnership that you post complies with all applicable laws and regulations including all advertising laws and, where applicable, FTC regulations including the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

  • You must ensure that the product, service or call-to-action (CTA) are clearly promoted without requiring users to click on any additional links. 

     

Prohibited Industries 

The following content categories are not eligible for Paid Partnership promotion:

  • Adult and sexual products and services (including adult merchandise, entertainment-related, or content that is adult in nature) 

  • Alcoholic beverages and related accessories 

  • Contraceptives

  • Dating & Marriage Services

  • Drugs and drug-related products or services (including recreational and prescription drugs, paraphernalia, and CBD supplements)

  • Financial products, services or opportunities (including loans, investment services, crypto, buy now pay later services and other financial-related content)

  • Gambling products and services (including lotteries, social casinos, sports betting, and other gambling related content)

  • Geo-political, political, social issues or crises for commercial purposes

  • Health and wellness supplements (including health, dietary, food, nutrition, muscle enhancement substances and supplements

  • Pharmaceutical and medicine-related products or services (including medical institutions, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs)

  • Tobacco and tobacco-related products or services (including shisha, vaporizers or vape devices)

  • Weapons and weapons-related products or services (including ammunition and weapons training/certification) 

  • Weight loss products and services and content focused on weight loss (including fat burning pills, appetite suppressants, fasting and detox teas) 

United Kingdom

Creators should include all applicable disclosures that are required to indicate the commercial nature of their content, such as ‘#ad’. Remember that all posts with commercial intent, including own-brand posts created by a user who has a commercial interest in the relevant brand (for example, as a director) will require a disclosure.

Failure to include an appropriate disclosure, as mentioned in the global section above, in a clear and prominent way could result in enforcement actions. 

Creators may also check the Influencers' Guide to Making Clear that Ads are Ads as provided by Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA).

Users who believe they have viewed a Paid Partnership which does not include an appropriate disclosure, may report their concerns directly to the relevant brand or to an appropriate regulatory authority, such as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

 

How to Report

Anyone can report violations of this policy by emailing X Ads Policy Support. An X account is not needed to report potential violations. 

 

What happens if you violate this policy? 

When determining the penalty for violating this policy, we consider a number of factors including, but not limited to the severity of the violation and an individual’s previous record of rule violations. The following is a list of potential enforcement options for content that violates this policy:

  • Requiring post removal.

    • For example, we may ask someone to remove the violating content and serve a period of time in read-only mode before they can post again. Subsequent violations may lead to account suspension.

  • Suspending accounts whose sole purpose is to violate our Paid Partnerships policy.

To learn more, please see our range of enforcement options, and if someone believes their account was enforced against in error, they can submit an appeal.