Facebook was also under fire from media organizations for its similar ad policies. The intention was to ensure that extremely partisan sites wouldn't be able to present their agendas as unbiased news through ad buys. But it hurt the regular media that reports on these issues. Facebook did take a small step back from its stringent policies, but Twitter is aiming to play more nicely with publishers than its rival social network did.

To qualify for exemption under Twitter's standards, news organizations much have a minimum of 200,000 monthly unique visitors in the US and a searchable archive and contact information available online. Single-issue publishers and "fringe" websites will not receive an exemption. These policies, which include increased transparency and a certification process that confirms a user's identity and location, will go into effect on September 30th.