Petition site Change.org to accept corporate and conservative sponsors

The petition website Change.org plans to implement new "open" advertising guidelines, eliminating their policy of only partnering with those who shared their progressive values.

The site's new ad policy will "now be a Google-like open advertising policy in which determinations about which advertisements we'll accept are based on the content of the ad, not the group doing the advertising," according to an internal FAQ obtained by Jeff Bryant of the Campaign for America's Future.

While anyone can create a petition for free at Change.org, the site had made money by sponsoring campaigns for liberal and progressive groups.

Now, the site will partner with any organization, including political parties and corporations, as long as their campaign is not violent, hateful, discriminatory, or promotes illegal activity. Change.org also will not accept any campaigns from hate groups, according their new advertising guidelines.

The FAQ, however, insists the decision to open up the site to more groups is not due to financial reasons.

"Change.org's mission, which guides all our decisions, is to empower people everywhere to create the change they want to see," the FAQ said. "We decided to be fully open because that is at the core of what we are; to achieve our mission, we must be constituent in our openness."