Twitter will now label issue ads ahead of US elections

In a bid to ensure better transparency for ads on Twitter, the company has announced new guidelines on how ads will be shown on the platform. With the launch of the new US-specific Issue Ads Policy and certification process, advertisers will have to adhere to certain rules which dictate how they must present themselves on Twitter, Engadget reports.

Twitter also requires advertisers to certify their identity and prove that they live in America in order to issue election-related material by September 30 or their ads won't go up on the platform. News organizations can seek exemption from the restrictions by petitioning. The ads including those on legislative issues of national importance such as abortion, climate change, guns, immigration, and so on will be labeled as issue ads.

Promoted tweets, on the other hand, will mandate the disclosure of the organization that paid for it. These efforts are directed to ensure more transparency prior to the mid-term elections in the US this fall. Social media companies are under the scanner after Facebook's massive Cambridge Analytica scandal that put to question the role such platforms play in influencing voters' decisions.

Recently, President Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of internet firms, hours after attacking Google over what he called "bias" against him and his supporters. "Google and Twitter and Facebook -- they are really treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The comments come after the president last week slammed social media firms for what he claimed was suppression of conservative voices, and Tuesday's tirade against Google that claimed news search results were "rigged" to favor "left-wing media."

With inputs from ANI

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