Some major advertisers, including Dyson, Mazda and chemicals company Ecolab, have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed their ads from parts of Twitter because their promotions appeared alongside tweets soliciting child pornography, the companies told
Brands ranging from Walt Disney to NBCUniversal and the Coca-Cola Co. to a children’s hospital were among about 30 advertisers who appeared on the profile pages of Twitter accounts linked to exploitative content, according to review of new The accounts identified in the research. Online child sexual exploitation from cyber security group Ghost Data.
Review found that some of the tweets contained keywords related to “rape” and “teenagers” and appeared alongside promoted tweets from corporate advertisers. In one instance, a promotion tweet for the footwear and accessories brand Cole Haan appeared next to a tweet in which a user said they were trading “teen/kids” content.
“We’re horrified,” Cole Haan brand president David Maddox told that the company’s ads appear alongside such tweets. “Either Twitter is going to fix it, or we’re going to fix it any way we can, including not buying Twitter ads.”
In another example, a user tweeted a search for “teen girls only, no boys” content, followed shortly by a promotion for the Texas-based Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital. Scottish Rite did not return multiple requests for comment.
In a statement, Twitter spokeswoman Celeste Carswell said the company has “zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation” and is investing more resources dedicated to protecting children, including writing policy and implementing solutions. Recruiting new positions for
He added that Twitter is working with its advertising clients and partners to investigate and take steps to prevent this situation from happening again.
Twitter’s challenges in identifying child abuse content were first reported in late August in an investigation by tech news site The Verge. The emerging pushback from advertisers who are key to Twitter’s revenue stream was first reported here.
Like all social media platforms, Twitter prohibits depictions of child sexual abuse, which are illegal in most countries. But it generally allows adult content and is home to a thriving exchange of pornographic images, which make up about 13 percent of all content on Twitter, according to an internal company document seen.
Twitter declined to comment on the volume of adult content on the platform.
Ghost Data identified more than 500 accounts that openly shared or solicited child sexual exploitation content over a 20-day period this month. Twitter failed to remove more than 70 percent of accounts during the study period, according to the group, which shared the findings exclusively.
Could not independently verify the accuracy of Ghost Data’s full search, but reviewed dozens of accounts that remained online and sought content for “13+” and “teenage-looking nudes.”
After shared a sample of 20 accounts with Twitter last Thursday, the company removed about 300 additional accounts from the network, but more than 100 more the next day, according to a review by Ghost Data. Still on site.
Twitter’s Carswell said on Tuesday that then shared the full list of more than 500 accounts after being provided by Ghost Data on Monday, which Twitter reviewed and permanently banned for violating its rules. But suspended.
In an email to advertisers Wednesday morning, before the story was published, Twitter said it “discovered that ads were running within profiles that publicly sell or display child sexual exploitation content.” were involved in requesting.”
The study was an attempt to evaluate Twitter’s ability to remove content, said Andrea Stropa, founder of Ghost Data. He said he personally funded the research after receiving a tip about the subject.
Twitter suspended more than 1 million accounts last year for child abuse content, according to the company’s transparency reports.
“There is no place online for this type of content,” a spokesman for automaker Mazda USA said in a statement, in response to the company now banning its ads from appearing on Twitter profile pages. has been
A Disney spokesperson called the content “reprehensible” and said they are “redoubled our efforts to ensure that the digital platforms we advertise on, and the media buyers we use , they strengthen their efforts to prevent such mistakes from happening again.”
A spokesperson for Coca-Cola, which revealed a promotional tweet on an account tracked by researchers, said it did not condone content associated with its brand and said “any violation of these standards is unacceptable.” It is accepted and taken very seriously.”
NBC Universal said it removed inappropriate content from Twitter
Code words
Twitter is hardly alone in dealing with the failures of moderation to protect children online. Child-welfare advocates say the number of popular child sex abuse images has grown from thousands to millions in recent years, as predators nurture victims and share explicit images on social media, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Have you used social networks?
For the accounts identified by Ghost Data, nearly all of the child sexual exploitation content marketers marketed the content on Twitter, then directed buyers to reach them on messaging services such as Discord and Telegram to Payment could be completed and files received, which were secure. On cloud storage services such as New Zealand-based Mega and US-based Dropbox, the group reported.
A Discord spokesperson said the company banned one server and one user for violating its rules against sharing links or content that sexually abuse children.
A link cited in the Ghost Data report was created in early August and deleted shortly thereafter by a user, who it declined to identify, Mega said. Mega said it permanently closed the user’s account two days later.
Dropbox and Telegram said they use different tools to moderate content but did not provide additional details on how they would respond to the report.
Yet the backlash from advertisers poses a threat to Twitter’s business, which earns more than 90% of its revenue by selling digital advertising space to brands looking to market products to the service’s 237 million daily active users.
Twitter is also battling in court Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, who backed out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company over complaints about the proliferation of spam accounts and its impact on business. trying to
A team of Twitter employees concluded in a February 2021 report that the company needed to invest more in identifying and removing child abuse content on a large scale, noting that the company had There is a backlog of cases to review for possible reporting to law enforcement.
“While the volume (of child sexual exploitation content) has grown exponentially, Twitter has not invested in technologies to detect and manage the growth,” according to the report, which An internal team was prepared to provide an assessment of the children’s condition. Get legal advice on exploitative content and suggested strategies on Twitter.
“Recent reports about Twitter take an outdated, fleeting look at just one aspect of our work in the space, and it doesn’t accurately reflect where we are today,” Carswell said.
Traffickers often use code words like “cp” for child pornography and are “deliberately as vague as possible” to avoid detection, according to internal documents. The more Twitter cracks down on certain keywords, the more users are forced to use obfuscated text, which is harder for (Twitter) to automate against, the documents state.
Ghost Data’s Strupa said such moves would complicate efforts to find content, but noted that his small team of five researchers and lack of access to Twitter’s internal resources would have limited 20 Was able to find hundreds of accounts within days.
Twitter did not respond to a request for further comment.
