Twitter has apologized after the BBC found that the company’s ad platform could be gamed to target neo-Nazis, Islamophobes and other hate groups. In a report published on Thursday, the BBC says it was able to use Twitter’s advertising tools to broadly identify groups of people who may have been interested in topics like white supremacism and then pay to advertise to them.
The BBC found that it was possible for brands to send ads to users who had searched for terms including “transphobic,” “white supremacists,” and “anti-gay.” It created a generic ad saying “Happy New Year” and paid Twitter $5 to promote it via its advertising tools. The users selected to see the ad were decided based on keywords chosen by the BBC, as a real advertiser would do with other keywords such as “sport” or “fashion” on many social media sites.
It was found that using keywords including “islamophobes,” “islamaphobia”, “islamophobic,” and “#islamophobic” resulted in the ad potentially reaching between 92,900 and 114,000 users. Targeting people using the term “neo-Nazi” in the UK would reach an audience of up to 81,000 people.
It was also possible to advertise to vulnerable groups. The BBC targeted 13- to 24-year-olds using the keywords “anorexic,” “bulimic,” “anorexia,” and “bulimia” with an estimated reach of 20,000 people.
Twitter is supposed to have restrictions in place for keyword targeting. Its policies for sensitive categories including religion, race, and sex life should stop advertisers from using such keywords for promotion.
In a statement to the BBC, Twitter said that its “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 as 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.”
Ad-targeting on social media platforms has come under increased scrutiny, raising questions about the potential for discrimination.
