Twitter has followed Facebook’s lead and endorsed the Honest Ads Act, legislation that regulates political ads on social media platforms.
The announcement comes just hours before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and roughly 24 hours after the lawmakers who introduced the legislation urged Twitter to endorse it.
“Twitter is pleased to support the Honest Ads Act. Back in the fall we indicated we supported proposals to increase transparency in political ads,” Twitter’s Public Policy account said Tuesday afternoon.
Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sent letters Monday to the CEOs of Twitter and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, urging them to endorse the Honest Ads Act.
Last week, Zuckerberg said Facebook will endorse and implement the legislation, first introduced in October.
Twitter said the legislation “provides an appropriate framework for [political] ads.”
Twitter on Tuesday also touted its Ads Transparency Center, which it first announced in October. The initiative, expected to launch in the summer, will show all ads running on Twitter, how long they have been running, who funded the ads, and what ads are targeted to each user.
It will also show how much was spent on the ad campaign, and who was behind the funding.
Facebook is facing pressure on how the data of more than 87 million users was improperly harvested by a research firm and its contractor ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Though there has been no publicly reported breach of the like by Twitter or Google, the two global media giants are facing pressure to act ahead of the 2018 midterms and beyond to prevent influence from foreign adversaries like Russia.
Twitter is pleased to support the Honest Ads Act. Back in the fall we indicated we supported proposals to increase transparency in political ads.
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) April 10, 2018
