Our work on brand safety is. Never. Done. We’re building products that protect people. To make Twitter better and safer for everyone.
— Twitter Marketing UK (@TwitterMktgUK) November 17, 2021
Safety for everyone. That’s Twitter’s unique approach to increasing the safety of its service. This involves giving both the people using the platform and those marketing on it more control over how their content appears and who can interact, while also taking measures to remove content that is against Twitter’s rules quickly.
When platforms and media companies focus first and foremost on the people – keeping people safe from abuse, misinformation, harmful content and harassment – it creates a safer environment for everyone. As a company, Twitter believes its purpose is to provide a healthier, safer public conversation for everybody on the platform, including brands.
Twitter approaches brand safety through the three Ps: policies, products and partnerships. Here are examples of how this looks:
Policies Twitter has updated policies and enforcement actions around questionable or inappropriate content. In June 2021, the platform updated its hateful conduct and abusive behaviour policies, more clearly explaining how it enforces the removal of content.
Products Twitter has introduced several new features in recent months aimed at reducing harmful content on the site, including Reply Prompts that ask people to think twice before sending potentially inappropriate tweets. Early tests revealed over a third of those prompted had second thoughts around their initial reply and either changed it or decided not to send.
Partnerships Twitter is working with third-party accreditation organisations, doing pre-assessments and audits of Twitter’s safety practices. This ensures the practices meet set standards – and that they are having a measurable impact.
Along with the three Ps, the company updates the Twitter Transparency Center twice a year, providing information, facts and data that showcase what’s happening on the platform in terms of health and safety.
Brands that advertise on Twitter also have ample control over where and when their ads appear. Marketers can decide whether or not they want their ads to surface in the platform’s search results, for instance, and just like all people on Twitter, they can determine who can reply to their Tweets.
Brand safety is not a black-and-white field, and brands have varying levels of comfort. They have the ability to set their own controls to meet their needs.
Evolution, evolution, evolution
Brand safety is an ongoing, ever-changing battle, and Twitter’s practices will continue to evolve. That said, recent efforts are already making an impact. Last year, Twitter measured the number of impressions tweets that violated its rules received before they were taken down. It found that 77% of tweets removed got fewer than 100 impressions; that’s just 0.1% of all impressions on the platform were for violating tweets.
Looking ahead, Twitter plans to continue to improve brand safety by giving people who use the service, as well as marketers, more transparency and tools, so they can continue to have more rewarding conversations and connections.
For more information on Twitter’s approach to brand safety, please see here.
