Twitter has apologized for allowing
advertisers to target hate groups.
The BBC investigated whether
advertisers could target homophobic, neo-Nazi or white supremacist
users on Twitter.
The British network revealed it was
possible to reach users who had shown interest in keywords such as
“transphobic,” “anti-gay” and “islamophobic.”
The
BBC created simple ads to see whether Twitter would stop the ads
from running. Each was approved but the outlet canceled them after a
few hours.
In a statement, Twitter apologized and
said that it would correct the issue.
"[Our] preventative measures
include banning certain sensitive or discriminatory terms, which we
update on a continuous basis," Twitter said. "In this
instance, some of these terms were permitted for targeting purposes.
This was an error."
"We're very sorry this happened
and as soon as we were made aware of the issue, we rectified it. We
continue to enforce our ads policies, including restricting the
promotion of content in a wide range of areas, including
inappropriate content targeting minors."