Twitter Ads Transparency Centre lets users view who bought its ads

San Francisco: Twitter has launched an "Ads Transparency Centre" which will enable users across the globe to identify who is advertising on its platform, the microblogging site said in a blog post.

The new transparency tools will let users search for and see who is buying ads, with even more detail on US federal political campaign ads that includes billing information, ad spend, impression data per tweet as well as demographic targeting data.

"Everyone around the world will have access to the Ads Transparency Centre. No login or Twitter account will be required, making it very simple for people to have clear insight and details on who is advertising on Twitter," Bruce Falck, GM, Revenue Product and Engineering, Twitter, wrote in the blog post.

To view the ads from any advertiser, users can simply search for a specific handle and see the creative for all ad campaigns that have run within the last seven days from that handle.

However, "if an ad is reported and taken down from Twitter, it will be tombstoned in the Ads Transparency Centre within approximately 24 hours. If the account was suspended, Tweets will not be shown in the centre. The same applies to deleted users and tweets," Falck said.

Twitter will also add a visual badge and disclaimer information on any ads for US federal political campaigns. The company noted that it will launch a more specific policy for issue ads in the future, and plans to enhance the centre itself.

In addition, Twitter is examining how to adapt and internationalise both political campaigning and issue ads policies.

"We are doing our due diligence to get this right and will have more updates to come. We stay committed to iterating and improving our work in this space, and doing what's right for our community," Falck said.

The company had, last month, announced guidelines for political advertisements on its platform, asking advertisers who wish to target the US with political campaigning ads to file for certification and adhere to fresh rules.

Facebook has also laid down new transparency initiatives, which allow users to see the active ads a Page is running and flag suspicious ones.

As part of the new initiatives, the social networking giant said users will be able to see the ads a Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and its partner network, even if those ads are not targeted at them.