Transparency policies for political ads expanded by Twitter, ahead of EU, India and Australia elections

Twitter Tuesday changed its political campaigning ad policies, announcing enhanced transparency features ahead of elections in Europe, India and Australia.

In recent years, social media companies, including Twitter, have faced criticism for spreading politically motivated misinformation and hate speech. Starting March 11, Twitter will only allow certified advertisers to run political campaign ads on its platform in all European Union member states, India and Australia, as all three face major elections in 2019.

Karen White, Twitter’s director of public policy, Europe, said in a blog post Tuesday that prospective political advertisers must apply for certification. “Once proof of identity is verified, and advertisers meet our eligibility requirements, a letter with an access code will be posted to their address to confirm they are located within the EU This will ensure that only EU-based individuals advertise political campaign content on the service.” said White.

Twitter will also publicly publish political ads’ billing information, ad spend, targeted demographics and impressions per tweet in the platform’s ads transparency center,she said.To prevent election interference on the platform, an elections team composed of trust and safety, legal, public policy and other departments will be constituted. Last month, Carlos Monje Jr., Twitter’s director of public policy and philanthropy, U.S. and Canada said, “Elections are coming up around the world, and our goal is to protect their integrity to the best of our ability and to take the learning from each with us, Our role, as ever, is to do our best to stay one step ahead while remaining humble in the face of potential new challenges.”