Twitter CEO apologizes for white supremacy ad
Twitter's crackdown on hate speech isn't turning out to be easy. CEO Jack Dorsey apologized Thursday after the microblogging site hosted an ad that promoted a white supremacy group earlier this week.
The promoted tweet, spotted by Twitter user Ariana Lenarsky Tuesday and surfaced by Motherboard Wednesday, linked to an article titled "The United States Was Founded as a White People's Republic" on the website of the New Order, a Neo-Nazi group. It was paid for by the account @New_Order_1488.
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It apparently took three days for Dorsey (the man who has two full-time CEO roles and whose chief operating officer of his struggling company is stepping down) to apologize. But the account was suspended and the ad was removed within an hour of being live, according to a Twitter spokesperson.
Twitter's ad policy "prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally," as listed on its website.
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The promoted tweet featuring an image of eight white children on a farm apparently seemed innocuous. Twitter's system does have tools to recognize visuals and texts that could be in violation of its policy, such as a swastika or a racial slur, but the account's altered image of a swastika as its profile picture was not flagged. Neither were the terms #WhiteAmerica and New Order, a known Neo-Nazi group.
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While Twitter does forbid such content, this ad -- like others in the past -- was able to make it on the site since much of its advertising system is automated.
"We've identified where our process broke down and are making immediate changes to prevent this from happening in the future," a Twitter spokesperson said. "Specifically, we're going to be adding more keywords and image recognition parameters to more quickly flag this type of content for review."
Topics X/Twitter Advertising
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
