Twitter places ads alongside child pornography
Twitter placed ads from ad partners alongside child pornography. Companies like Disney, Coca Cola and Dyson then suspended or removed their campaigns. Even a children’s hospital is affected. The backgrounds.
Twitter makes most of its revenue from advertising. But now numerous advertising partners such as Disney, Coca-Cola and Dyson are up in arms. Because the short message service is said to have placed the digital advertisements of the brands next to child pornographic content.
Like the news agency Reuters reported, according to research by cybersecurity group Ghost Data. According to this, more than 30 advertisers are affected – including a children’s hospital. According to the report, the ads from the brands and companies appeared alongside tweets calling for child pornography.
Twitter shows ads from advertising partners alongside child pornography
Some tweets that appeared alongside the advertisers’ ads appeared to include keywords such as “rape” and “teenagers.” The affected companies were meanwhile appalled. David Maddocks, brand president of fashion retailer Cole Haan said:
We are appalled. (…) Either Twitter will fix this, or we will fix it by any means necessary, which also means we won’t buy Twitter ads.
Twitter spokeswoman Celeste Carswell said the short message service had “zero tolerance for the sexual exploitation of children.” The company also wants to invest more in child safety. This also includes hiring new employees and adjusting policies.
Carswell added that Twitter is working with affected brands and companies to investigate the incident. Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that such a situation does not recur.
Over 500 accounts with child pornography content
Ghost Data could be loud Reuters while identifying over 500 accounts that openly shared child sexual abuse content in September 2022. Twitter again failed to remove more than 70 percent of the accounts.
Numerous advertising partners were dismayed and announced consequences. For example, a company spokesman for Forbes said, “Twitter needs to fix this issue as soon as possible, and until then we will cease all further paid activity on Twitter.”
Meanwhile, Disney described the case as “reprehensible” and added that they wanted to prevent something like this from happening again. The case and the reactions of those affected could pose a major revenue risk for Twitter, since the company generates over 90 percent of its revenue from the sale of advertising.
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