Popular social media platform X (AKA Twitter) is failing to follow its own policies, a new study proved.
X may have plenty of advertising rules in place but the latest audit that took into consideration 34,000 ads on the popular platform showed how it’s not in line with the long list of policies that it once was known for.
The researchers of this study claim to have performed the first audit of its kind on such a grand scale. And this is where they were able to prove many loopholes with the biggest one having to do with X keeping its own word.
And where members leading the firm aren’t compliant, how can one expect others to follow suit, right?
Meanwhile, the study showed how there’s a huge gap that stands between what the X firm claims is allowed and what is actually allowed to slip through on the web. If that’s not the perfect example of poor content moderation in the world of advertising then we’re not sure what is, the researchers claim who hail from the University of California.
A whopping 60% of advertisements were promoted across X and they violated one or more of the firm’s own advertising policies. Moreover, one in five of the ads were seen going against the policies highlighted for promoting adult content.
All in all, a whopping 17 policies were linked to displaying ads on the x app itself which entails preventing all political figures and governmental leaders from deleting ads. This includes any requirements linked to contact details of people to approach in case ads were highlighted as an issue.
But when the team of experts went through the ads displayed across X over a span of six months, they saw how so many ads on the app kept on going against the designated policies. Moreover, there was one case where such ads kept on breaking the rules at X and no one took note of this violation or opted to do something about it.
If that was not shocking enough, one particular incident saw the mayor of London taking out a certain ad which is not allowed on the app but it happened and almost went unnoticed.
Moreover, the issue has to do more with compliance being higher in some nations where English is not spoken as the native language. More than half of the ads studied were English but it’s interesting how the figure for violations in Turkey turned out to be the greatest. The latter is where close to 200 non-compliant ads got published.
So what the researchers concluded is that X has moderation teams that are specific to a certain region in the world. They might be moderating well in places like the US so the figure for violations happens to be least there but in other parts of the world, it’s constantly on the rise.
Some politicians from the US continued to make violations and put out ads, even though they were barred from this act. And it’s amazing how big names in the American Senator League were included in this ordeal.
Other incidents investigated include ads that marketed explicit content that continues to be barred from showing on X. Moreover, this study showed how the figures for ads linked to adult content rose significantly after Elon Musk took over the firm.
So what could be the real reason behind such findings? Why is there a gap between what X promises and what it really does? Well, for starters, they’re only collecting data when advertisers make an effort to get on the app. And after signing up, there isn’t a care in the world about the data.
Meanwhile, another matter is linked to how the company knows exactly what it’s doing and just is too lazy to enforce its own rules or be bothered about what’s taking place on this platform.
Remember, it’s not easy to really keep track of the millions of ads being displayed on the app. You’ve got to be very specific and as the CEO mentioned that 90% of all advertisers are back, we can only imagine what the company is having to deal with.
Read next: Twitter's Mysterious Vanishing Act with the Curious Case of the Election Misinformation Reporting Tool
X may have plenty of advertising rules in place but the latest audit that took into consideration 34,000 ads on the popular platform showed how it’s not in line with the long list of policies that it once was known for.
The researchers of this study claim to have performed the first audit of its kind on such a grand scale. And this is where they were able to prove many loopholes with the biggest one having to do with X keeping its own word.
And where members leading the firm aren’t compliant, how can one expect others to follow suit, right?
Meanwhile, the study showed how there’s a huge gap that stands between what the X firm claims is allowed and what is actually allowed to slip through on the web. If that’s not the perfect example of poor content moderation in the world of advertising then we’re not sure what is, the researchers claim who hail from the University of California.
A whopping 60% of advertisements were promoted across X and they violated one or more of the firm’s own advertising policies. Moreover, one in five of the ads were seen going against the policies highlighted for promoting adult content.
All in all, a whopping 17 policies were linked to displaying ads on the x app itself which entails preventing all political figures and governmental leaders from deleting ads. This includes any requirements linked to contact details of people to approach in case ads were highlighted as an issue.
But when the team of experts went through the ads displayed across X over a span of six months, they saw how so many ads on the app kept on going against the designated policies. Moreover, there was one case where such ads kept on breaking the rules at X and no one took note of this violation or opted to do something about it.
If that was not shocking enough, one particular incident saw the mayor of London taking out a certain ad which is not allowed on the app but it happened and almost went unnoticed.
Moreover, the issue has to do more with compliance being higher in some nations where English is not spoken as the native language. More than half of the ads studied were English but it’s interesting how the figure for violations in Turkey turned out to be the greatest. The latter is where close to 200 non-compliant ads got published.
So what the researchers concluded is that X has moderation teams that are specific to a certain region in the world. They might be moderating well in places like the US so the figure for violations happens to be least there but in other parts of the world, it’s constantly on the rise.
Some politicians from the US continued to make violations and put out ads, even though they were barred from this act. And it’s amazing how big names in the American Senator League were included in this ordeal.
Other incidents investigated include ads that marketed explicit content that continues to be barred from showing on X. Moreover, this study showed how the figures for ads linked to adult content rose significantly after Elon Musk took over the firm.
So what could be the real reason behind such findings? Why is there a gap between what X promises and what it really does? Well, for starters, they’re only collecting data when advertisers make an effort to get on the app. And after signing up, there isn’t a care in the world about the data.
Meanwhile, another matter is linked to how the company knows exactly what it’s doing and just is too lazy to enforce its own rules or be bothered about what’s taking place on this platform.
Remember, it’s not easy to really keep track of the millions of ads being displayed on the app. You’ve got to be very specific and as the CEO mentioned that 90% of all advertisers are back, we can only imagine what the company is having to deal with.
Read next: Twitter's Mysterious Vanishing Act with the Curious Case of the Election Misinformation Reporting Tool
