![[Photo Via recode.net] [Photo credit: recode.net]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/27/660x290/b_502x220x82/photo-via-recodenet-photo-credit-recodenet_1658419.jpg "[Photo Via recode.net] [Photo credit: recode.net]")
Twitter decided to change advertising policies because of election interference.
Breaking news has been announced by Twitter Inc on Tuesday stating that the social media will be implementing an overhaul in their policy regarding political ads. This is basically in compliance with the US Senate which has been exerting political pressure over companies after the scandal regarding Russian bought ads during the Presidential Elections in 2016.
The new aesthetics
#Twitter has announced in a Blog Post several changes that will be applied to the platform, first in the US and which will be rolled-out later to the rest of the world.
Said modifications are aimed to make these types of ads clearly identifiable, so that users will not overlook them, and will simply enhance the look and feel in order to achieve this objective.
According to CNBC, the “ads will have a visual marker, possibly a purple dot next to the user handle, and a purple box containing the phrase ‘Promoted by’ and indicating the name of the sponsor”.
In addition to these visual changes, the social media platform has also mentioned changes regarding their penalties to companies which do not comply with their upcoming stricter standards for search and targets criteria. However, details on the new standards and penalties have yet to be disclosed.
Working with Congress
The new policy adopted by Twitter originated from the political scandals surrounding the last US Presidential elections, during which the recently elected President #Donald Trump was accused of siding with Russian hackers to obtain sensitive information on the political rivals and most importantly, directly hacking into the electronic voting systems.
Along with these accusations, there have been revelations of Russian funded political ads on social media favoring President Trump. This has triggered action by the US Congress in order to prevent future actions of similar nature, or at least protect the audience by making it clear for the users where the ads are originated, and who is behind them.
Thus was born the “Honest Ads Act”. This act aims to apply several changes in political digital campaigns, such as the disclosure of information about the buyer, including other purchases and the total amount of money invested and will target all of the most important digital companies in the US.
Even though the bill has yet to be passed, major digital juggernauts like Facebook, Google and Twitter have already been taking steps towards a new era of digital political propaganda.
