Tag: policy

Singapore – Hours after the announcement of banning users from promoting rival social media platforms, Twitter has deleted its previous announcement regarding said social media policy, with the dedicated page for it now unavailable.

In a series of now-deleted tweets, the official page of Twitter Support had said that starting December 18, they would no longer allow promotion of particular social media platforms on Twitter.

Some of the mentioned platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post. In addition, link-in-bio tools like Linktree and Lnk.Bio will be also banned.

“We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter,” the company said back then on its policy page.

However, it is worth noting that the social media platform said it will allow such types of tweets provided they fall under paid advertising or paid promotion.

The policy deletion was a result of the quick widespread criticism of said policy, including those by influencers who often cross-promote their social media platforms from one medium to another.

At the moment, Twitter’s safety page is currently holding a poll related to said ban on rival social media platforms. The poll revealed highly favoured opposition, with 85.5% of the respondents against such policy.

The new policies are done under the leadership of new CEO Elon Musk, who started off his time in the company by firing the company’s C-suite leadership, as well as doing massive layoffs which have reached marketing and communications teams in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore – Tech giant Google has recently announced new policy updates in order to combat financial fraud in advertising. First launched in the United Kingdom in 2021, the policy will roll out in phases in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan.

According to an online statement from Alejandro Borgia, director for ads privacy and safety at Google, the new policy creates a new layer of security against fraudsters and will help further safeguard their network from financial scams.

As it rolls out in the three aforementioned markets, advertisers will be able to apply for verification at the end of June, and the policy will go into effect on August 30, 2022. As part of the verification process, financial services advertisers in these markets will need to demonstrate that they are authorised by their relevant financial services regulator, and have completed Google’s advertiser verification program in order to begin promoting their products and services.

“We work tirelessly to make sure the ads we serve are safe and trustworthy, and we know that partnering and collaborating with government regulators is critical to our success. That’s why we’re closely coordinating with regulators in these three markets to make sure this program is effective at scale. In the coming months, we plan to further expand these verification requirements to advertisers in additional countries and regions,” Borgia said.

This is the latest policy from Google to tackle online fraud in advertising. In 2020, they launched their advertiser verification program that will require Google advertisers to verify and disclose information about their businesses, such as where they operate and what they’re selling or promoting.

“This policy is just the latest step in our longstanding effort to tackle online fraud. We have robust policies in place to prohibit bad actors from deceiving people through tactics such as phishing, using clickbait, or providing misleading information about a product, service or business. We also have strict rules about how advertisers can market financial products such as loans and debt services,” Borgia added.

United States – The social media giant will now be enforcing a global policy prohibiting ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, it said Wednesday on a blog post.

On the post, Head of Health Kang-Xing Jin and Director of Product Rob Leathern straightforwardly said, “We don’t want these ads on our platform.”

The new policy is another step forward to Facebook’s goal to fight misinformation amid the pandemic, having previously put restrictions on vaccine hoaxes identified by World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

“Now, if an ad explicitly discourages someone from getting a vaccine, we’ll reject it,” it said.

Facebook will, however, still allow ads that advocate for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines, but will be requiring them to get authorized and have the ‘Paid for by’ label included in order for people to see the brand or company behind them. 

“We regularly refine our approach around ads that are about social issues to capture debates and discussions around sensitive topics happening on Facebook. Vaccines are no different,” said Facebook.

Aside from the policy, Facebook announced that it will be launching a new information campaign to encourage people to get their flu shot. It will be initially launched in the US in the current week and will be gradually rolled out in other countries.