• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News Media

Twitter revealed to allow adverts targeted at racists, neo-Nazis and homophobic groups

Discriminatory keywords such as ‘transphobic’, ‘white supremacists’ and ‘anti-gay’ were not excluded by the platform.

Ben Gelblum by Ben Gelblum
January 16, 2020
in Media, Technology

Twitter has apologised for letting adverts on the platform target hate groups including neo-Nazis and homophobes.

The firm allows advertisers to target people using specific keywords based on what they share in tweets, like, or what they search.

An investigation by the BBC found discriminatory terms such as “transphobic”, “white supremacists” and “anti-gay” were not being excluded during the ad setup process.

“Neo-Nazi”, which also slipped through the net, could reach an estimated audience of between 67,000 and 81,000 people in the UK, the report claims.

RelatedPosts

Daily Mail claim to expose Labour mole behind Greensill affair

GB News announces latest recruits – but no word on launch date for ‘rampant populist’ channel

Watch: UN adviser shames BBC for ignoring Western human rights abuses

BPO Philippines and Digital Growth

Meanwhile, 92,900 to 114,000 accounts were predicted for the keywords “islamophobes”, “islamaphobia”, “islamophobic” and “#islamophobic”.

Despite Twitter’s website saying adverts can be reviewed before running in campaigns, it is claimed generic test adverts using offensive terms were approved.

“They are submitted for approval on an automatic basis, based on an account’s advertising status, its historical use of Twitter and other evolving factors,” it states.

The report said it was possible to target vulnerable groups as well, such as the keywords “anorexic”, “bulimic”, “anorexia” and “bulimia” at 13 to 24-year-olds.

Facebook refuses to ban lies from political ads after ‘disinformation election’

Twitter responded saying it does ban certain sensitive words from its ad tool but the particular examples were an “error” and it has now fixed the issue.

“Twitter has specific policies related to keyword targeting, which exist to protect the public conversation,” a spokeswoman said.

“Preventative measures include banning certain sensitive or discriminatory terms, which we update on a continuous basis.

“In this instance, some of these terms were permitted for targeting purposes. This was an error.

“We’re very sorry this happened and soon as we were made aware of the issue we rectified it.

“We continue to enforce our ads policies, including restricting the promotion of content in a wide range of areas, including inappropriate content targeting minors.”

Ahead of the UK general election, Twitter banned political ads, as did TikTok, while Google banned advertisers from targeting voters based on their political affiliation.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said: “A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet.

“Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”

However Facebook have refused to ban targeted political adverts, whether they are honest or not, despite 88 per cent of Conservative political adverts being found to be misleading by fact checkers. Facebook have conceded their inaction may mean Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020.

By Ben Gelblum and Jamie Harris

@BenGelblum

READ MORE: Facebook refuses to ban lies from political ads after ‘disinformation election’

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today, 22 April 2021

Image by AdobeStock

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Thursday 22 April 2021

TLE

The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – ‘The English Garden Margarita’

thunder ball results

Thunder Ball Results, Wednesday 21 April 2021

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.