Major brands pull ads from Twitter after appearing next to child porn tweets

Some brands including Forbes, Dyson, Mazda, PBS Kids, Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, Cole Haan, and Coca-Cola have suspended their advertising on Twitter after their promotions reportedly appeared next to tweets seeking child pornography, Reuters reported.

Over 30 advertisers were said to have appeared on the profiles of Twitter accounts that had links to child pornography, Reuters said after reviewing accounts highlighted in new research by cybersecurity firm Ghost Data covering child sex abuse online.

The ads appeared alongside tweets that contained keywords associated with "rape" and "teens". According to Reuters, an ad by Cole Haan appeared next to a tweet which said the user was "trading teen/child content". Cole Haan's brand president David Maddocks told Reuters that the brand is horrified and that Twitter is either going to fix it or Cole Haan will "fix it by any means [it] can, which includes not buying Twitter ads".

Meanwhile, Forbes' spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: "We were horrified to learn about this and we immediately ceased any paid activity on Twitter. We have no plans to resume our marketing on Twitter this time. They need to fix this mess."

Coca-Cola's spokesperson added: "We do not condone this material being associated with our brands. We have paused paid media on Twitter in the US and Canada until we have more facts from Twitter’s investigation. We have clear and strict brand safety guidelines and protocols in place across social media platforms. Any breach of these standards is unacceptable and taken very seriously."

At the same time, Twitter's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it is working closely with its clients and partners to investigate the situation and take the appropriate steps to prevent this from happening in the future.

"In addition to the ongoing work being done to better detect and suspend accounts posting child sexual exploitation material, we are working with our product teams to ensure we have the right models, processes and products in place to help keep everyone who uses Twitter safe - people and brands alike," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that Twitter consistently invests in resources to provide advertisers with products and tools to meet their brand suitability needs, including providing the ability to opt-out of placement in Search and Profiles entirely as an additional layer of control and risk mitigation. It also works very closely with key industry partners to advance brand safety as a central component of Twitter’s advertising and measurement solutions.

"Twitter remains committed to providing a safe environment for all people, and this includes ensuring advertisers can connect with their customers safely," the spokesperson said.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Dyson, Mazda, PBS Kids, Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, Cole Haan, and Ghost Data for comment.

Ghost Data's research found that more than 500 accounts either openly shared or solicited child sexual abuse content for over 20 days this month. That said, Twitter reportedly failed to remove over 70% of the accounts during the study period, Reuters said. The dozens of accounts that remained online and were reviewed by Reuters showed that they were requesting materials for "13+" and "young looking nudes".

After a sample of 20 accounts was shared with Twitter by Reuters last Thursday, the social media company removed approximately 300 additional accounts from its platform. However, more than 100 other accounts remained on the site the following day, reported Reuters. On Monday, Reuters then shared the full list of more than 500 accounts and these were reviewed by Twitter before being permanently suspended for violating its rules.

Twitter told advertisers in an email on Wednesday that it uncovered ads were running within profiles that were "involved with publicly selling or soliciting child sexual abuse material", Reuters said. Separately, the social media company said in its transparency report that there was a 31% increase in the number of accounts that violated its child sexual exploitation policy during the second half of 2021. It suspended 596,997 unique accounts during this reporting period – a 32% increase since our previous report. Of these, 91% of suspended accounts were identified proactively by employing internal proprietary tools and industry hash-sharing initiatives.

Brand safety remains an issue in this digital age. According to DoubleVerify’s 2022 Global Insights Report, there was a 9% dip in brand safety and suitability violations last year as well as a 7% decrease in fraud violations. Also, 61% of advertisers are adopting a brand safety floor which identifies content that is considered unsafe and never appropriate for monetisation. According to DoubleVerify, 93% of its advertisers use at least one brand safety floor category for avoidance, blocking and/or monitoring, and 61% use all floor categories.

Twitter isn't the only company to have experienced this. In 2017, advertisers including Amazon, Cadbury, eBay, Mars, Diageo, Adidas, HP and Deutsche Bank halted advertising on YouTube over concerns their ads are running on videos of children who are being targeted and exploited. YouTube was found to have allowed sexualised imagery of children to be easily searchable and not lived up to promises to better monitor and police its services to protect children, according to an investigation by The Times and BBC then. 

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