It appears that tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s war against advertisers across X might be taking a new turn with some unintended consequences.
Think along the lines of users complaining about the website being bombarded with poor-standard ads including those marketing questionable Crypto Services, Phishing and Malware Scams and ‘Undressing Apps’ through AI.
Today, a team member of DIW discovered a shady ad in the home feed that leads to an obvious phishing site. Despite the ad/post being reported through X tools, as it clearly violated the platform's guidelines, it is still live. Unfortunately, there's no quick/easy way of alerting X that a post poses a security threat to its users, as there's no distinct reporting category for phishing or cybersecurity issues. DIW reached out to Twitter for a comment but has not received any reply.
On the other hand, social media users and researchers have their say on this front including how the quality of such paid promotions across X keeps going from bad to worse and it’s a direct result of top advertisers exiting the app.
In the past few weeks, the figures have reached a new high and many called out the platform for the growing figures linked to these ads and how some people included community notes as promotions to help others steer clear of the act and risk losing a huge sum of funds.
Others feel these ads were increasing by the day and to now see it on the website too is just a lot. Such see them rising on their respective timelines and others saw the surge of apps calling for ‘undressing’ and that’s leaving a very disturbing feeling in their minds.
Through AI, these platforms enable users to produce pictures of real people in a naked stance. That is a clear violation of the platform’s own terms of service that inhibits all kinds of explicit imagery and behavior from being promoted through the platform. They are rapidly spreading through the web and as per experts from top social media analysis company Graphika, such tools could be wreaking havoc in terms of being used for the likes of sextortion and targeted campaigns linked to harassment of others.
For now, X has yet to generate any kind of comments linked to the ordeal that some refer to as shocking and dangerous.
The rise in such questionable content online through X is not very uncommon because other tech giants have been dealing with similar behavior and therefore gone as far as sending out apologies for the scam ads linked to the world of crypto.
Both advertisers and social media experts are telling the world that what we’re seeing happen on X is due to the large exodus of top advertisers leaving the app so that is why the firm is relying on smaller-scale advertisers to make money and that includes ad buyers that are less reputable in the industry.
One expert from an advertising agency called Mekanism spoke to a media outlet and mentioned how seeing such ads was clear evidence that big advertisers were gone and how X has gone to the bottom of the list of trying to make money and people happy.
The race is yet to be over but the behavior of X in handling this ordeal is concerning. Last month, critics reported witnessing ads that market things like stealing semen that kept on being promoted on the app, and the fact that suspicious ads keep increasing is just a lot to accept.
We think the biggest issues linked to X have to do with all large-scale advertisers walking out and the frequency arising reaching an all-time high. This really does give rise to a tough time for advertisers and users who are genuine fans of the platform.
By this behavior, it’s quite clear that X has zero desire to produce an environment that promotes brand safety. Seeing the likes of Apple and Disney amongst other leaders leaving the app due to Musk promoting anti-Semitic posts is proof of the challenges that X keeps on facing as we speak. Instead of sitting down and talking to them, he chose to tell them to f**k themselves and referred to the act as terrible blackmail.
Read next: TikTok Inches Closes To Adding Generative AI Search For Maximal Discovery Inside And Outside The App
Think along the lines of users complaining about the website being bombarded with poor-standard ads including those marketing questionable Crypto Services, Phishing and Malware Scams and ‘Undressing Apps’ through AI.
Today, a team member of DIW discovered a shady ad in the home feed that leads to an obvious phishing site. Despite the ad/post being reported through X tools, as it clearly violated the platform's guidelines, it is still live. Unfortunately, there's no quick/easy way of alerting X that a post poses a security threat to its users, as there's no distinct reporting category for phishing or cybersecurity issues. DIW reached out to Twitter for a comment but has not received any reply.
On the other hand, social media users and researchers have their say on this front including how the quality of such paid promotions across X keeps going from bad to worse and it’s a direct result of top advertisers exiting the app.
This isn’t just on my timeline, either. I was on Kirk’s profile page.
— kevin harrish (@Kevinish) December 13, 2023
Twitter literally allowed a DeepFake AI nude generator to advertise on the profile page of ESPN’s most prominent college football personality.
A verified account with 1.6 million followers. pic.twitter.com/xqCDa7Ilgm
In the past few weeks, the figures have reached a new high and many called out the platform for the growing figures linked to these ads and how some people included community notes as promotions to help others steer clear of the act and risk losing a huge sum of funds.
Others feel these ads were increasing by the day and to now see it on the website too is just a lot. Such see them rising on their respective timelines and others saw the surge of apps calling for ‘undressing’ and that’s leaving a very disturbing feeling in their minds.
Through AI, these platforms enable users to produce pictures of real people in a naked stance. That is a clear violation of the platform’s own terms of service that inhibits all kinds of explicit imagery and behavior from being promoted through the platform. They are rapidly spreading through the web and as per experts from top social media analysis company Graphika, such tools could be wreaking havoc in terms of being used for the likes of sextortion and targeted campaigns linked to harassment of others.
For now, X has yet to generate any kind of comments linked to the ordeal that some refer to as shocking and dangerous.
The rise in such questionable content online through X is not very uncommon because other tech giants have been dealing with similar behavior and therefore gone as far as sending out apologies for the scam ads linked to the world of crypto.
The number of ads with community notes shows the quality of ads on this platform!
— ㆅ (@howfxr) January 7, 2024
There shouldn't be any ads with community notes attached. If an ad gets a community note, Twitter should unpublish the ad until verifying its authenticity 🙃 pic.twitter.com/uZlD3Aymd5
Both advertisers and social media experts are telling the world that what we’re seeing happen on X is due to the large exodus of top advertisers leaving the app so that is why the firm is relying on smaller-scale advertisers to make money and that includes ad buyers that are less reputable in the industry.
One expert from an advertising agency called Mekanism spoke to a media outlet and mentioned how seeing such ads was clear evidence that big advertisers were gone and how X has gone to the bottom of the list of trying to make money and people happy.
The race is yet to be over but the behavior of X in handling this ordeal is concerning. Last month, critics reported witnessing ads that market things like stealing semen that kept on being promoted on the app, and the fact that suspicious ads keep increasing is just a lot to accept.
We think the biggest issues linked to X have to do with all large-scale advertisers walking out and the frequency arising reaching an all-time high. This really does give rise to a tough time for advertisers and users who are genuine fans of the platform.
By this behavior, it’s quite clear that X has zero desire to produce an environment that promotes brand safety. Seeing the likes of Apple and Disney amongst other leaders leaving the app due to Musk promoting anti-Semitic posts is proof of the challenges that X keeps on facing as we speak. Instead of sitting down and talking to them, he chose to tell them to f**k themselves and referred to the act as terrible blackmail.
Read next: TikTok Inches Closes To Adding Generative AI Search For Maximal Discovery Inside And Outside The App
