Twitter announces steps to increase ad transparency

Twitter has announced steps to increase transparency for all ads on the social media platform, including political and issue-based ads. The company aims to improve control for its customers and adopt stricter advertising policies.

Bruce FalckThe news was released on October 24, through a blog by Bruce Falck, general manager revenue product and engineering, Twitter.

He wrote that in the coming weeks, the company will launch an industry-leading ‘Transparency Centre’ that will offer visibility into who is advertising on Twitter, details behind those ads, and tools to share feedback.

The Transparency Centre will showcase all ads that are currently running on Twitter, including Promoted-Only ads. It will also indicate the time, i.e. for how long these ads have been running, while sharing the ad creative associated with the campaigns. Moreover, it will reveal ads that are targeted to a specific user.

Users can also report inappropriate ads or provide negative feedback for every ad running on Twitter, whether they target a user or not. This feedback will help the social media site quickly remove inappropriate ads and showcase more relevant ads on a user’s timeline.

The blog adds, “... when you are seeing or engaging with an electioneering ad, we will now require that electioneering advertisers identify their campaigns as such. We will also change the look and feel of these ads and include a visual political ad indicator.”

In the Transparency Centre, there will be a special section for electioneering ads that will include:

• All ads that are currently running or that have run on Twitter, including Promoted-Only ads;

• Disclosure on total campaign ad spends by advertisers;

• Transparency about the identity of the organization funding the campaign;

• Targeting demographics such as age, gender and geography; and

• Historical data about all electioneering ad spending by advertisers

Twitter is also updating its policies for electioneering advertisers with points that include stricter requirements on who can serve these ads and limit targeting options. It will now require electioneering advertisers to self-identify as such and stronger penalties to be levied on advertisers who violate policies.

Twitter also plans to work with its peer companies, other industry leaders, policymakers and ad partners, to clearly define industry definition for issue-based ads and integrate them into the new approach mentioned above.

Twitter plans to issue these updates in the U.S. first and then roll them out globally.