Twitter lobbying on online ads in wake of proposed elections bill

Twitter Inc. wants to make sure the government understands how online advertising works before it considers adopting new elections legislation, said the company’s head of government and public policy Michele Austin, who was approved last week to lobby the government for the social media company. It is the first time Twitter Canada has registered to lobby, and it’s looking to work with the government to tackle diverse areas of policy, including privacy, a national data strategy and proposed elections legislation Bill C-76, according to its registration on the federal lobbyist registry. It follows Facebook Inc.’s recent move to register to lobby in Canada for the first time. Austin said she is still getting up to speed on the national data strategy file, which has picked up traction in recent weeks. But she said Twitter will play its part in educating the government on diverse advertising models, such as Twitter’s own, particularly in light of proposed elections Bill C-76. “We’re making sure that there is understanding and knowledge of how online advertising works ... with regard to elections, and having discussions with regard to how the new legislation will be enforced,” Austin said in a phone interview Friday, adding the company supports the bill. The legislation, for example, completely bans foreign third-party money from being used in Canada’s elections — the current limit is $500 — but it also proposes holding social media companies accountable for knowingly allowing that kind of advertising. How that will be enforced is still unknown. Austin, a former Summa Strategies consultant, said part of the reason behind the lobby registration is to let the government know that the company’s advertising business model is not typical — it is “self-serve,” which essentially means advertisers are given all the tools to customize their ads. “For instance, if accounts have to be Canadian in order to advertise, we’re making sure that it is not on Twitter to enforce the location of the account; that governments understand that responsibility rests on the advertisers to prove the location of their bank account,” Austin said. “We’re just making sure that — with regard to enforcement, and the enforcement details are still murky — whoever ends up enforcing this legislation understand what the records are that we keep and that we understand what due diligence it is that the government is going to perform.” The government was asked in early May, following the bill’s introduction, about how it will enforce these rules against the tech giants which they say they will hold accountable. A government official only said in a technical briefing that the “prospect of an investigation should reduce the likelihood of the situation.” The issue was previously raised by Twitter at a procedure and house affairs committee meeting in June. Appearing alongside Facebook, Austin and Twitter's director of policy for Canada and the United States Carlos Monje requested more “clarity” about how the regulation of ads would work and how those rules would be enforced. Specifically, Twitter representatives asked in their statement to committee how “intent” and “knowingly” will be “measured and proven with regard to hosting ads, how Elections Canada will enforce these changes, how suspicious activity will be reported,” and about Elections Canada’s ability to act in real time, as well as how the issue of misidentifying accounts of real users would be dealt with. They said Twitter needs more time to complete its due diligence on the proposed changes. “The effort to address misinformation and disinformation has to be multi-faceted and has to be focused on our being good at what we're good at, which is trying to stop manipulation of our platform and identify places where people are using malicious automation—the bots and trolls that you discussed—to try to hijack the conversation and kick people off the facts or what matters,” Monje said in response to a question at committee about how Twitter will block foreign advertising during Canadian elections. Facebook Canada's head of public policy Kevin Chan said at the meeting that the company supports the bill's provision for companies like his to not “knowingly” accept elections advertisements from foreign entities. Both Twitter and Facebook said they have been improving transparency around ads in general and political ads in particular. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

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