Twitter loses ad clients over child pornography fears

Dyson, Forbes and Mazda are among a list of major advertisers who have suspended their advertising campaigns on Twitter over child pornography concerns in the latest blow for the social media giant as it wrestles with whistleblower safety allegations and a protracted legal battle with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

A number of companies have removed ads from Twitter after they were found to have appeared alongside profile pages of Twitter accounts posting links to child pornographic material online, according to the Reuters news agency.

It follows an investigation by news site The Verge in which Twitter employees said the social media platform wasn’t able to accurately detect the presence of child sexual exploitation material at scale. The Verge said the findings by employees followed an internal review on safety policies as part of plans to “give adult content creators the ability to begin selling OnlyFans-style paid subscriptions, with Twitter keeping a share of the revenue.”

A Twitter spokesperson told Reuters the social media firm “has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation” and would invest in more resources for tackling child safety issues.

It’s the latest in a string of sagas for Twitter as the beleaguered tech firm continues to fight Tesla owner Musk after he abandoned his $44 billion takeover offer, citing concerns over the numbers of fake accounts on the platform.

Last month, former Twitter exec Peiter Zatko accused the company of jeopardising personal and national security with its information handling policies, alleging the firm doesn’t delete users’ data after they deactivate their accounts, and has cybersecurity policies that expose it to hacking and disinformation by state aggressors.