In a bid to address concerns about hate speech and harmful content, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, X, has unveiled new sensitivity settings tailored for advertisers. These settings grant advertisers the ability to customize the level of content filtering applied to their ads, marking X’s effort to win back advertisers who have previously abandoned the platform due to these concerns.
The New Initiative X’s recent announcement regarding its sensitivity settings for advertisers reflects a conscious push to regain the trust of advertisers. This initiative comes in response to growing apprehensions about hate speech and inappropriate content that have compelled some advertisers to withdraw from the platform.
Refined Filtering Mechanism The newly introduced sensitivity settings harness the power of machine learning to decrease the likelihood of ads being displayed near content that violates X’s community guidelines or strays from a brand’s preferences. Advertisers are presented with two options: conservative and standard filtering. The conservative approach ensures that ads steer clear of content related to hate speech, sexual material, excessive profanity, gratuitous violence, obscenity, spam, and drug-related themes in the “for You” timeline. On the other hand, the standard option mirrors the conservative filtering, except for spam and drug-related content. X also plans to incorporate a relaxed option, offering advertisers the opportunity to broaden their ad reach with minimal content filtering.
An Upgraded Pathway to Trust X is striving to reinstate advertisers’ confidence in its platform with these new sensitivity settings. Previously, X had introduced keyword-based adjacency controls in December 2020. However, these controls had a limited impact on the platform’s ad revenue, which experienced a 50 percent decline after Elon Musk’s takeover in 2021. Criticism from watchdog groups and researchers further compounded X’s woes, with instances of ads from prominent brands being associated with controversial accounts and previously banned users.
Striving for Positive Change While X maintains that it has effectively curtailed the exposure of hate speech, independent experts have contested this assertion. X has engaged in a legal battle against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), one of the groups that accused the platform of hosting hateful content. X alleges that CCDH unlawfully scraped data from its site, sparking a legal dispute.
X’s Road to Redemption X hopes that the introduction of these sensitivity settings will go a long way in rebuilding the trust of both advertisers and users, consequently revitalizing its advertising business. The platform asserts that it has successfully limited the reach of hate speech, and it remains committed to cultivating a secure and positive digital environment for all its users.
In the midst of these efforts, X is also crafting a new feature allowing users to sort posts on profiles using various criteria. The impending feature, as depicted in a screenshot shared by Andrea Conway, a designer at X, will enable users to arrange posts by “Most recent,” “Most liked,” or “Most engaged with.” Though this feature is not yet accessible to all users, it is anticipated to roll out in the forthcoming months.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, X has ushered in a slew of transformative changes since 2022, including renaming the platform, introducing a subscription service, ad revenue sharing, and more. These initiatives underscore X’s commitment to innovation and improving user experiences while safeguarding the platform’s integrity.
