Given what we know about Twitter’s current status, we’re not sure if this update is going to do it much good, if any. Still, Twitter has to try, right? Even if by the most measly amount, the company has to gain favor where it can, lest it gives in to ruin. On that note, Twitter recently announced that its updated partnerships with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science are now up and running. This will see both platforms provide third-party brand safety and suitability measurement for Twitter ad campaigns in the US.

Are You Sure?

As per Twitter:

“Our brand safety measurement solutions with industry leaders DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science are now generally available to advertising customers based in the US. These services monitor and quantify the prevalence of ad placement adjacent to English-language content deemed either unsafe or unsuitable for monetization by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) in Twitter’s Home Timeline.”

This is good, given how this is pretty much the industry standard by now. However, for Twitter, which has been reinstating a steady stream of formerly banned accounts, it could potentially be problematic, at least in some aspects. For example, let’s look at the reinstatement of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, who was originally banned in 2021 for some nasty anti-Semitic remarks. This dude was allowed back on Twitter just this week, was active for less than a day, before being once again banned for pulling a repeat stunt.

Various reports have suggested that other reinstated accounts (more than 60,000), have, for the most part, gone back to Tweeting the same garbage that originally got them banned in the first place. Furthermore, hate speech, in general, has been on the rise in the app. So, either a lot of people just really get a kick from being complete douches, or free speech really extends to people being allowed to say whatever they want. Neither is good news.

Within this, providing advertisers with more insight into the placement of their ads alongside such content isn’t really the most appealing thing; I’d rather have my ads placed somewhere obscure, rather than somewhere toxic. For Twitter, of course, everything is ‘all good’. They even report that testing showed positive results, contrary to what people are seeing. Twitter’s also planning to expand these measures to more markets and languages, providing more transparency and assurance for ad partners.

The Wrap

Regardless of the implications, Twitter needs its ad partners right now. Reports have suggested that Twitter already saw a 40% YoY decline in ad revenue. Should these new transparency measures show an increase in potentially harmful ad placement, that could further hurt Twitter’s bottom line, and it already has a pretty narrow margin of error as we speak. Maybe the timing’s just really off?

Sources

http://bit.ly/3WBiF5r