Twitter might have issues with content moderation and ad placement.
The company was spotted placing ads next to controversial content as advertisers return to its platform following Linda Yaacarino's replacement of owner Elon Musk.
Advertisers left Twitter in droves in late 2022 due to his broken promises for content moderation and fears of being boycotted for supporting such a company.
Twitter Ad Placement Woes
Twitter is on its way to becoming a place advertisers consider safe for their ads. According to Business Insider, Yaccarino's appointment as Twitter's new CEO after Musk stepped down from the role calmed advertisers and made their relationship with Twitter more amicable.
You may recall that Yaccarino helped establish close collaborations with big brands during her tenure at NBC Universal, finding opportunities for product placements and convincing them to advertise alongside TV shows, even those with risque content.
As a result, she helped generate more than $100 billion in ad sales for NBC Universal during her 11-year term there - a welcome reputation for the advertisers that fled Twitter following Musk's takeover.
Despite Yaccarino's appointment, however, advertisers' worries about the company might flare up again thanks to a recent incident.
Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, noted the increase in the ads she saw on Twitter as advertisers return to its platform; she wanted to see if the same ads were appearing on or near content controversial accounts publish, such as neo-Nazi and terrorist accounts.
She saw that the same ads were on or near such content, such as posts from White Lives Matter California, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled as a hate group. One of their posts, which retweeted portions of a 2017 antisemitic propaganda film, "Europa: The Last Battle," had ads for Disney, ESPN, the NBA, Adobe, and even Microsoft on or near it and similar content from other people despite the film's content violating Twitter's rules against posting media depicting hateful imagery.
Although Twitter removed the ads as soon as Caraballo's tweet gained public attention, they soon appeared again, though this time, Carabello altered her search terms to "Last battle Europa." This finding led Caraballo to believe that Twitter restricted that specific search instead of moderating content or removing ads on or near the content entirely.
Representatives for the previously mentioned companies have yet to address the issues about their ads appearing on such controversial posts.
"It just goes to show that the site is rife with extremist content, and yet brands are returning," Caraballo said.
Twitter's Trouble With Advertisers
Despite Yaccarino's appointment, Musk's changes to the company's policies and the skeleton crew he has left after the layoffs he executed haven't changed. As such, Twitter may not be a safe place for advertisers to place their ads just yet.
Advertisers left the company's platform after Civil rights Groups urged them to pause or remove their ads on the platform in late November due to Twitter's lack and broken promises of content moderation measures.
Musk previously promised that Twitter would have a "Content Moderation Council" to analyze and implement newer approaches to moderate the content on the platform and delegate some of that responsibility.
Unfortunately, Musk never formed such a council during his time as CEO; his promise to not run ads alongside questionable posts was also broken, as evidenced by this incident.
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