LOS ANGELES •Instagram is willing to pick up the tab for some celebrities' video production costs. As long as they do not film anything about politics or elections.

Anyone who gets Instagram money to produce content for IGTV, the app's hub for longer videos, "must not include content about social issues, elections or politics", according to a contract distributed by the company to creators and agents. Bloomberg News obtained a copy of the document.

The clause has alarmed some of the influencers and creators, who have been approached about posting clips on IGTV, according to a person familiar with the situation. They asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations.

That is a stark contrast to its parent company Facebook, which has vigorously defended political speech online. Instagram's IGTV contract conflicts with this ethos by restricting political speech along with payment.

IGTV offers a mix of sports, entertainment, politics and music. Popular posts last Friday included a deleted scene from television series The Office (2005 to 2013), anime clips and videos from the website Barstool Sports.

In these new IGTV deals, Instagram offers thousands of dollars to cover production costs for creators, in exchange for a certain number of posts. It has made dozens of deals and plans to make more, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The biggest deals have eclipsed US$250,000 (S$340,350) for more than 20 posts. There are other restrictions, too, according to the contract language. The videos cannot be sponsored by a third party, cannot promote content on another platform such as YouTube and cannot involve a sweepstakes or product giveaway.

Instagram's incentives are small compared with programmes from other video services such as Facebook Watch and YouTube. Instagram has a policy of not paying celebrities for their work beyond production costs.

BLOOMBERG