Twitter has gone live with its ‘Ads Transparency Centre’ for India, ahead of the general elections. The Ads Transparency Centre would allow people to view details of political advertisements in the country, including advertiser spends and impressions data.
Twitter had announced last month that the microblogging site would provide details including advertising spends and impressions data of tweets from political entities to users in India, in an attempt to bring greater transparency on its platform by tightening norms for political advertisements.
In a blog post on February 19, Twitter had said that the enforcement of this policy would begin in the week starting March 11 in specific countries including India. After the enforcement, only certified advertisers will be allowed to run political campaigning advertisements on its platform.
Now the Ads Transparency Centre has gone live in India on Monday, with a search feature that allows users to see who is advertising political content on Twitter the ad spends and targeting demographics.
With the general elections on the brink, the Indian government has warned social media platforms of restraining from circulating any misinformation and curb the activities made to influence the country’s electoral process through undesirable means.
Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have promised to comply with the rules and infuse more transparency into political advertisements on their platforms.
Twitter has been facing criticism for its alleged political bias in the country and has been maintaining that it is committed to remaining unbiased and it “does not review, prioritize, or enforce its policies on the basis of political ideology.”
An Indian Parliamentary committee had summoned Twitter‘s chief executive to appear before it later this month after the Twitter official denied to attend a hearing on Monday to discuss citizens’ rights on social media. The panel had refused to meet “junior officials” of the microblogging site during its meeting on February 11.
The summon comes as the social media company is under scrutiny for alleged bias against accounts on its platform with certain ideologies. Several social media platforms are also overhauling their policies ahead of the upcoming general election in the country.
General Elections are slated for April-May this year that would spread on Seven Phases starting from April 11 to May 19. Election Commission had on Sunday declared schedule for General Elections 2019. Results for the crucial Lok Sabha Polls will be announced on May 23 four days after the 7th phase of voting.
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