Twitter halts ads & recommendations in Russia, Ukraine

The company said it is proactively reviewing Tweets to detect platform manipulation and taking enforcement action against synthetic and manipulated media that presents a false or misleading depiction of what's happening.

New Delhi: Twitter on Saturday announced to pause ads and recommendations in Russia and Ukraine to safeguard users from misinformation, as it monitors risks associated with the Russia-Ukraine war.

The company said it is proactively reviewing Tweets to detect platform manipulation and taking enforcement action against synthetic and manipulated media that presents a false or misleading depiction of what’s happening.

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“We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” the company posted in a tweet.

For people using Twitter in Ukraine and Russia, “we also paused some Tweet recommendations from people you don’t follow on Home Timeline to reduce the spread of abusive content”.

The platform said it is identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information.

“We’ll continue to take steps to safeguard people on the service and the communities they operate within, while enforcing the safety and integrity of the platform during this time”.

Earlier, after blocking several researchers’ accounts as Russia began a military strike against Ukraine on Thursday, Twitter admitted it “mistakenly” removed a number of accounts sharing details about Russian military activity.

Several researchers sharing Russia-Ukraine information found their Twitter accounts “unexpectedly” suspended.

Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, said in a tweet that the company’s human moderation team made the mistake.

“A small number of human errors as part of our work to proactively address manipulated media resulted in these incorrect enforcements. We’re fixing the issue and reaching out directly to the affected folks,” he posted.