Twitter Will Show Who Pays For Ads and How Much They Spend (bloomberg.com)

Twitter will show detailed information about advertisers in an attempt to combat meddling in future elections. You will now be able to search for a Twitter account and see all the ads it has run in the past seven days. "For U.S. political advertisers, users will be able to see billing information, ad spending, demographic targeting data and the number of times tweets have been viewed," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The changes are part of Twitter's broader efforts to clean up its service after lawmakers berated the company for failing to discover Russian influence peddling through fake accounts and divisive ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Earlier this week, the company began requiring more authentication from users. In May, it rolled out stricter rules that require advertisers running political campaign ads for federal elections to identify themselves and certify they are located in the U.S. The company has also banned ads from accounts owned by Russia Today and Sputnik.

Comments

Thanks Trump

[Kunedog]

Just another in a long line of longstanding issues that got zero coverage before the media started pretending that "Trump did it" or that it happened because of Trump.

Re:Thanks Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

No one would have cared that Russia meddled if the "right person" had gotten elected. To date, no one STILL cares about the meddling that Clinton did

Re:Thanks Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Had she won there would have been no fuss about any Russian interference. Obama had actionable intelligence 8 months before the election and did not say or do anything. His stated reason for taking no action on the intelligence was he did not want to disrupt the on-going campaigns. Of course he and all the political experts fully expected Clinton to win the election. If she won there would be no need to bring up any Russian interference. All the social media companies would have never changed any of their operations or summoned to Congress for a hearing. Just like there would have been no efforts to eliminate the "un-fair" electoral college. And if Clinton had won the government would have pretty much stayed the same. Trump is an idiot but he has said a lot of things other Presidents only wish they could have said.

Everyone complaining about Trump's actions act like the world was a perfect place before he came along and crashed the party. The old "stay the course" diplomacy and governmental operations caused most of the problems we face today.

Trump decided to take some different approaches to the intractable and long lasting problems in the world. He openly castigated NATO members for not honoring their monetary and resource obligations to NATO.

He exited the Iranian nuclear agreement because the US was the only signatory that got nothing. The EU was after billion of dollars in Iranian trade. Russia got to look like a model global citizen just doing good things for good people as well as expanding economic possibilities. The Iranians received the ability to enter the world trade and currency markets. They received all the assets the US froze since 1979. All Iran had to do was turn off a couple of centrifuges. The Iranians used their windfall to put into it's ballistic missile programs. And the Iranian nuclear research library stolen by the Israelis painted an entirely different spin on Iran's nuclear weapon capabilities. The only thing the US got out of the agreement was a pinky promise to not build nuclear weapons.

He recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Actually he just enacted an existing US Congressional law to do so. People argued this would cause more violence in a region. Exactly when is the last time violence was taking place in the ME? In terms of body count the embassy move was about as peaceful as it gets.

He has also went about securing Arab buy in to the Palestinian peace plan the US government is pushing. Most of the Arab countries in the area are placing economic concerns above supporting the Palestinians. It seems the Arab's are finally getting over the embarrassment caused by getting their assess kicked by the Israelis every time they attempted a military solution to run the Jews into the sea.

The tariff backlash is caused because no body wants the status quo challenge. And the status quo seems to require the US to shut up and accept all the shitty trade agreements in the name of global happiness. And lets see how far Europe is prepared to go when they lose their US military protections they have taken for granted over the past 60 years. And Canada already levies heavy tariffs on US imports. They are not complaining because they think the existing trade agreements are fair for all parties and should not be meddled with they are complaining about Trump having the nerve to binging the subject up in public.

He exited the Paris Climate Change agreement because there was not a single benefit for the US. The reduction of green house gases and other pollutants related to fossil fuel use is already occurring. Alternative energy sources are growing every year. Exactly what does a piece of paper created by lofty academics and professional environmental activists actually accomplish?

The real problem is Trump actually using the power the US wields when US interests are challenged.

Re:Thanks Trump

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

The correct solution is to reduce the power of government, and, by doing so, reducing its control as a prize.

Increasing power, including censorship of the printing press to mass produce and distribute speech, is rocketting in the wrong direction.

Re:Let the corruption begin

[Fly Swatter]

No more than before, why would a bad actor ever use anything that can be traced back to themselves? Twitter has always had this info and with a court order be made to provide it. This is just a publicity stunt.

Thanks Trump

[Okian Warrior]

It got attention because of Russia meddling in US politics. Don't be obtuse.

It got attention because Hillary lost, and there had to be *some* reason for it that didn't put the blame on Hillary or the Democrats.

Along with sexism, misogyny, Bernie Sanders, Wikileaks, low information voters, women under pressure from men, and James Comey.

Hillary's comment is informative:

"I never imagined that [Putin] would have the audacity to launch a massive covert attack against our own democracy, right under our noses - and that he'd get away with it."

The Russian interference amounted to about $1.25 million per month, compared to the $1.2 billion spent by Hillary, or $617 the million spent by Trump.

But it's probably good to be able to tell who's purchasing ads in future elections.

Memes next?

[AHuxley]

When to meme is too politically funny will the artist have to ID themselves and prove they are located in the U.S?

Information like this

[Kohath]

Something called "the Committee for Government Healthiness" spent money. Thanks Twitter. We still don't know anything about this group or whether they go by 100 other names.

Re:Excuses for a traitor

[Archangel Michael]

If you voted for Hillary, she committed the greatest of all crimes during an election, rigging one. The whole thing, from Email servers, to DNC hacked Emails, to tarmac meetings, to Deep State spying was all exposing her for the crimes she and others on her direct behalf were committing (and some are continuing to this day).

The ONLY thing so far to come out of the Trump/Russia Collusion story is ... Hillary paid for FSB sponsored dirt on Trump, the Deep State used that to spy on his campaign, and have lied and obfuscated to cover it all up (to no avail). And you're convinced Trump is the bad guy.

I didn't vote for the guy for a variety of reasons, but seeing the twisting liberals and democrat hacks are going through backfiring left and right only makes me giggle in delight.

Hillary is a lifelong political criminal. I'm glad she lost. Maybe you can nominate her again ... I hear 3rd time is a charm.

Re:Excuses for a traitor

[ranton]

Actually I didn't lose. Trump is going to prison for the rest of his life and Republican faggot cowards like yourself will have to just deal with it ongoing forever, bitch. Don't cry snowflake, Donald doesn't care if you live or die lol. Moron.

Ha, even if you are right about Trump going to prison you still lose. They aren't going to remove his Supreme Court nominations, which is arguably the most important thing a president does (arguably by a very large margin). A Republican will still be in office even if Trump is sent to prison. A Republican will still be in office even if Pence is impeached along with Trump.

A significant amount of the damage cannot be undone. The effects of the 2016 election will be felt in the most impactful legal decisions in this country for at least 20 years, if not 30.