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Twitter Runs Neo Nazi Ad Hours After Outlining Steps to Limit Abuse, Apologises for Mistake

Twitter Runs Neo-Nazi Ad Hours After Outlining Steps to Limit Abuse, Apologises for Mistake

By Jasper Scherer, The Washington Post | Updated: 19 November 2016 13:28 IST

On Tuesday morning, Twitter published a blog post outlining new steps aimed at curbing the spike in abusive tweets and Twitter accounts that have plagued the site in recent years, particularly during an election cycle that produced a surge in white supremacist and so-called alt-right accounts.

Twitter has been criticised for taking a passive stance on the issue. But the new steps announced Tuesday, combined with the site's move to suspend several accounts of high-profile alt-right users, seemed to mark a step toward greater censorship of the extremist accounts.

Twitter's plan to limit abusive and hateful content includes an updated policy that allows users to report such content even if it targets other users. It also plans to expand the "mute" feature - which allows users to remove an account's tweets from their timeline without blocking the account - to include keywords, phrases and conversations.

But, as Twitter acknowledged on its blog, the new steps will not "suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter." In fact, about 12 hours after Twitter published the announcement, Los-Angeles based writer and musician Ariana Lenarsky posted a screenshot of an ad on her timeline promoted by the now-suspended account @NEW_ORDER_1488, which represents a neo-Nazi website called The New Order.

The ad links to an article on The New Order's website titled "The United States Was Founded as a White People's Republic," followed by the hashtag #WhiteAmerica. The website's homepage, adorned at the top by a Nazi swastika, advocates for a "rebirth of racial idealism and reverence for the eternal laws of Nature." The article promoted in the Twitter ad has been deleted from the website.

The promotion violated Twitter's ad policy, which "prohibits the promotion of hate content, sensitive topics, and violence globally." Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged the mistake and apologised in a tweet Thursday. He said Twitter's "automated system" allowed the ad to go through, notifying users the ad has been "fixed," tweeting: We made a mistake here and we apologise. Our automated system allowed an ad promoting hate. Against our policy. We did a retro and fixed!

Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment.

The social media company has searched for options to combat its declining stock prices and sluggish user growth, but investors, including Disney, have expressed skepticism that has been linked to Twitter's lenient approach to abuse and harassment.

Lenarsky responded to Dorsey's apology on Thursday, calling for people to continue holding Twitter accountable for filtering its promotions, tweeting: Acknowledgement from @jack & @twitter is great, but it really isn't over. We must continue to hold feet to the fire on this stuff (Nazis).

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