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Twitter gets on board with Honest Ads Act

Twitter gets on board with Honest Ads Act

Twitter has joined Facebook in endorsing new American legislation that would increase the transparency of political ads.

The Honest Ads Act requires social platforms to keep more diligent records about who is buying political advertisements. The Act will require social media platforms with 50 million users or more to “make all reasonable efforts to ensure that foreign individuals and entities are not purchasing political advertisements in order to influence the American electorate”.

The two senators behind the act had publicly implored Twitter, Facebook and Google to support them. Google remains the only company that is yet to respond.

“Twitter is pleased to support the Honest Ads Act. Back in the fall we indicated we supported proposals to increase transparency in political ads,” the network’s public policy account revealed.

“Last October, Twitter announced plans to launch a new industry-leading platform called the Ads Transparency Center (ATC). The ATC will go beyond the requirements of the Honest Ads Act and eventually provide increased transparency to all advertisements on Twitter.

“Twitter is moving forward on our commitment to providing transparency for online ads. We believe the Honest Ads Act provides an appropriate framework for such ads and look forward to working with bill sponsors and others to continue to refine and advance this important proposal.”

Dropping the p-bomb

This follows the public backing given by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week.

“From now on, every advertiser who wants to run political or issue ads will need to be verified,” he said. “To get verified, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location. Any advertiser who doesn't pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads. We will also label them and advertisers will have to show you who paid for them.

“Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support the Honest Ads Act. This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.”

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