X, the company previously known as Twitter, was discovered as it runs not classified ads in follow -up summaries for users, and she learned Techcrunch and was able to directly confirm. While scrolling through our Follow feed on a Mac using the Chrome web browser, we encountered a group of unnamed ads amidst other posts from people we follow, as well as other ads an act Properly display the “Ad” tag at the top left of the post.
Since many X ads are still classified, this makes unclassified ads more difficult to detect.
It’s unclear whether the issue is a bug in the X Ads platform or an intentional change intended to trick consumers into thinking some ads are regular posts from accounts they follow.
In our tests, we came across a good range of unnamed ads from accounts we didn’t follow. In fact, the only indication it was an ad was by clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right of the post. When you click on this menu in an ad, you will see various sharing options such as: “I’m not interested in this ad” or “Why this ad? Plus tools to follow, mute, block, and more.
In some cases, the unnamed ads were from different NFL teams — according to examples sent by a tipster — but TechCrunch also found a variety of other posts that weren’t displaying the ad label when we tried to reproduce the issue ourselves. (This took a lot of scrolling and clicking!)
The problem with ads follows An update made by X to the ad rating format in Julycausing it to shift from the more prominent “Promoted” label below its ads which also includes an arrow icon above the post’s reaction buttons like reply and retweet.
Now, the word “ad” appears at the top right of the post, next to the publisher’s name and @username — a position some people resort to Critics He said It made the ads less noticeable.
However, these posts were still technically classified as ads, so X wasn’t breaking any rules about deceptive advertising practices.
This may no longer be the case, since many ads now stream through users’ timelines without ad labels attached.
“The FTC should open an investigation into in Washington, D.C., when contacted for comment. He continued: “It should require X to hide any data that it or its advertising partners have collected from its users, in addition to imposing fines and other penalties.”
“Doesn’t Elon Musk know that
It appears that unnamed ads may be an ongoing problem, as we have come to Defeat a A few supports Which Referred to the problem before today.
“User control over their social media experience should include clear categorization of ads they were not looking for, as opposed to content they were actually looking for,” noted Adam Schwartz, senior staff attorney at the digital privacy nonprofit. EFF. “If a platform fails to categorize ads, they must correct the problem.”
In addition to potentially attracting the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or other regulatory investigation outside the United States, the ad misclassification is also a prominent blemish on the résumé of Company X’s newly appointed CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who joined the company in June of NBCUniversal where she was Group Head of Advertising and Partnerships. Her hiring was meant to signal to advertisers that a responsible adult who understood the business had been put in charge of the revenue-generating side of the Elon Musk-owned company.
Since hiring Yaccarino, X has tried to lure advertisers back with a $250 ad credit, promising that advertisers can choose their own “sensitivity” settings when it comes to brand safety. But recently, Elon Musk began blaming the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) accusations of anti-Semitism for Company X’s decline in US advertising revenues and threatened to file a lawsuit against the organization.
X no longer has a communications department to respond to press inquiries.
However, we reached out to X for comment and received an automated response via email that read: “Busy now, please check back later.” Previously, the company responded to inquiries Using poop emoji.