In a bid to provide clarity on all ads running on Twitter, the micro-blogging website Twitter has announced Ads Transparency Centre (ATC) which allows anyone across the world to view ads that have been served on the platform.
Similar to the search experience on Twitter, in order to view ads from any advertiser, users are required to simply search for a specific handle that will display creatives for all ad campaigns that have run within the last seven days from that handle.
If an ad is reported and taken down from Twitter, it will be tombstoned in the Ads Transparency Centre within approximately 24 hours. If the account was suspended, Tweets will not be shown in the ATC. The same applies to deleted users and Tweets.
“For US political advertisers that fall under our new Political Campaigning Policy, you will be able to see further details, including billing information, ad spend, and impression data per Tweet. Additionally, we will be showing demographic targeting data for the ads being served,” Twitter said in a blog post.
And in addition to the information being shared within the Ads Transparency Centre itself, Twitter is also making it transparent as to who is advertising US federal political campaign content on Twitter by including a visual badge and disclaimer information on promoted content from certified accounts. This will allow users to easily identify political campaign ads, know who paid for them, and whether it was authorised by a candidate.
But, who has access to the Ads Transparency Centre?
According to Twitter, everyone around the world will have access to the ATC and no login or Twitter account will be required. The Ads Transparency Centre will include all advertisers on Twitter globally, but only US federal election campaigning ads that fall under the company’s new policy will be shown at this stage.
“We will be launching a specific issue ads policy in the future, as well as enhancements to the Ads Transparency Centre itself. In addition, we are examining how to adapt and internationalise both political campaigning and issue ads policies. We are doing our due diligence to get this right and will have more updates to come,” added Twitter.
