A new discovery has revealed that X (Twitter) is showing ads in the Following feed to users without labels – making them appear like regular content. While the rogue ads can be tough to discern, here’s a trick to check if you’ve got unmarked ads in your feed.
Agencies like the FTC in the US and EASA in the EU have requirements for ad labels and it appears X is breaking those rules, either by accident or by design.
Reported by TechCrunch‘s Sarah Perez, after hearing from a tipster about unlabeled ads on the X Following feed, she dug around to see what she could find using X on the web with Chrome.
As noted by Sarah, because many ads are labeled on X (top right corner), that makes finding the unlabeled ones trickier. She ended up finding “a good handful of unlabeled ads” in her Following feed like this one from the NFL:
How to check for unlabeled ads on X
The fastest way to confirm if you’ve got unlabeled ads in your Following feed is to click the three-dot icon in the top right corner of a post.
Top comment by Blorft
and it appears X is breaking those rules, either by accident or by design
*looks at the camera like a character from The Office*
If it is an ad, you’ll see “Not interested in this ad?” and “Why this ad?” at the top:
Like Tesla, X abandoned a comms team but Sarah reached out for a comment on the issue nonetheless. She got back the default auto-response “Busy now, please check back later.”
Time will tell if this is enough of an infraction for the FTC and other regulators to open investigations.
Are you noticing ads without labels in your X Following feed? Share your experience in the comments!
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