Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey formally apologised on Thursday for allowing a white supremacist group to sponsor an advertisement in violation of the company’s own policies.
Dorsey made the apology in a short tweet.
We made a mistake here and we apologize. Our automated system allowed an ad promoting hate. Against our policy. We did a retro and fixed! https://t.co/7gvycmzpsm
— ??jack (@jack) November 17, 2016
The advertisement in question was widely criticised after Los Angeles musician Ariana Lenarksky published a screenshot of the advertisement and sent it to Twitter in a public message. The advertisement was promoting an article titled, “The United States Was Founded as a White People’s Republic”.
.@twitter I can’t believe anything still surprises me, but why the fuck am I seeing nazi ads on this website pic.twitter.com/jtKKnn8XR5
— Ariana Lenarsky (@aardvarsk) November 16, 2016
The account that originally placed the advertisement has been suspended. Twitter’s ad policy states that “hate speech or advocacy against an individual, organisation or protected group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, color” is strictly prohibited. At the time, Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo, “We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.”
It’s still unclear what Dorsey meant by “did a retro”, but hopefully it means that hate groups won’t be allowed to promote content across the network. For now, all we can do is hope for the best.