New Transparency For Ads On Twitter

(RTTNews) - Twitter Inc. (TWTR) announced steps to dramatically increase transparency for all ads on Twitter, including political ads and issue-based ads. It will also be improving controls for customers and adopting stricter advertising policies.

In the coming weeks, Twitter will launch an industry-leading transparency center that will offer everyone visibility into who is advertising on Twitter, details behind those ads, and tools to share customers feedback with the company.

The Transparency Center will show all ads that are currently running on Twitter, including Promoted-Only ads; How long ads have been running; Ad creative associated with those campaigns; Ads targeted to you, as well as personalized information on which ads you are eligible to receive based on targeting.

Twitter noted that people can also report inappropriate ads or give negative feedback (i.e. "I don't like this ad") for every ad running on Twitter, whether the ad targets you or not. This feedback will help the company more quickly remove inappropriate ads from Twitter, and show people more relevant ads in their timeline.

Electioneering ads are those that refer to a clearly identified candidate (or party associated with that candidate) for any elected office. To make it clear when people are seeing or engaging with an electioneering ad, the company 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.

Twitter noted that it will make updates first in the U.S., and then roll them out globally.

The new transparency addresses the way Russia-backed accounts planted ads on Twitter and Facebook Inc. before and after the U.S. presidential election under allegedly false pretenses. Both companies have said that Russian entities bought ads under deceptive identities, with the goal of spreading misinformation or attempting to sow social conflict.