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Twitter Says It Will Comply With Honest Ads Act To Combat Russia Social Media Meddling (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cause-and-effect dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Twitter today pledged to support a proposed Senate bill that would require technology platforms that sell advertising space to disclose the source of and amount of money paid for political ads. Called the Honest Ads Act, the bipartisan bill was first introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). As part of its transparency efforts, Twitter says it's launched a new platform called the Ads Transparency Center, or ATC, that will "go beyond the requirements of the Honest Ads Act and eventually provide increased transparency to all advertisements on Twitter." Twitter says the platform will increase transparency for political and so-called issue ads, which target specific topics like immigration and gun control, by providing even more information on the origin of an ad that is required by the Honest Ads Act. "We have a dedicated team that is fully resourced to implementing the ATC and are committed to launching it this summer," the company states. "Twitter is moving forward on our commitment to providing transparency for online ads. We believe the Honest Ads Act provides an appropriate framework for such ads and look forward to working with bill sponsors and others to continue to refine and advance this important proposal."

7 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. And this will work! by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because we all know that no Russian (or Republican or Democrat, for that matter) would ever LIE about who was behind a political ad....

    Note that there is plenty of room for a First Amendment challenge to this as well. It's been established for a long time that ANONYMOUS political speech is protected by the First....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:And this will work! by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Some people will find new ways to evade existing laws, and thus existing laws will have to be amended or new laws passed - Actual Real Logic

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:And this will work! by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 2

      Some people will find new ways to evade existing laws, and thus existing laws will have to be amended or new laws passed - Actual Real Logic

      A friend of mine (Hi Lisa!) almost became a corporate lawyer for just this effect.

      She wasn't trying to keep the company "honest" or follow the rules, she wanted to "bend the existing rules to her will" so that the company could do as they wanted while still following the letter of the law.

      And I'm sorry, that's exactly right -- if you make a law, then you describe exactly how it works. Tell me what I can and can't do. If you then botch describing things somehow, it's not THEIR problem. And if new ideas and technology starts to outdate and outrun your law, then you'd better update it, huh? (Much better than making NEW laws, fix the ones we already have.)

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  2. "Combat Russia" by Mr307 · · Score: 2

    If they intend to be truly transparent (doubt it), wouldn't' it be funny if it becomes apparent that the most advertising/content 'meddling' was something other than the evil Russians, and could reveal more than intended?

    Wouldn't be the first time.

  3. Absurd by wyattstorch516 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The 100K worth of Russian ads supposedly decided a multi-billion dollar election? Maybe Clinton's problem was Clinton.

  4. ...as opposed to not complying? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 2

    Is that how laws work now? We can which ones we want to comply with and which we don't or does that only work for large corporations?

  5. It will absolutely work! by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

    Because we all know that no Russian (or Republican or Democrat, for that matter) would ever LIE about who was behind a political ad....

    Note that there is plenty of room for a First Amendment challenge to this as well. It's been established for a long time that ANONYMOUS political speech is protected by the First....

    Firstly, it's not only political ads, but "issue" ads. IOW, they have license to determine that *anything* at *any* time is an issue and requires separate scrutiny.

    Secondly, they will claim that you must identify yourself and not lie in order to purchase these sorts of ads, and if they suspect that you are lying in any details they can pull your ads. IOW, they can pull ads at any time and require you to send proof of identity; for example: a utility bill for the registered address plus driver's license.

    So they can take any subject and suddenly decide that it's a political "issue" and yank ads promoting one side until people can positively identify.

    And the left will point out that they are not the government, are not bound by the first amendment, and they can run their business any way they want to. If you don't like their services, you don't have to advertise on twitter.

    (Violent opinions against straights/males/white will be allowed because "diversity", while gun opinions and anti-trans discussion will be suppressed because "we need you to identify yourself before posting ads about these issues".)

    It'll work perfectly, just not in the way they are describing it.

    Gab just today sent this E-mail:

    In light of Facebook’s data scandal that exposed the data of 87 million users [...] Gab is ad-free and supported by our GabPro customers with no need for mass data collection.

    Gab also unveiled their user-data management panel where you can delete older posts by date range, and other good stuff.