X introduces new sensitivity settings for advertisers

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has announced new sensitivity settings that allow advertisers to choose how much content filtering they want for their ads. The new feature is part of X’s efforts to win back advertisers who have left the platform due to concerns about hate speech and other harmful content.

The new sensitivity settings use machine learning to reduce the likelihood of ads appearing near content that violates X’s rules or does not match the brand’s preferences. Advertisers can choose between two options: conservative and standard. The conservative option excludes ads from appearing near targeted hate speech, sexual content, gratuitous gore, excessive profanity, obscenity, spam and drugs in the “for You” timeline. The standard option avoids the same topics, except for spam and drug-related content. X also plans to add a relaxed option for advertisers who want to maximize the reach of their ads with minimal filtering.

X earlier had keyword-based adjacency controls, which were introduced in December 2020. However, those controls did not seem to have much impact on X’s ad revenue, which dropped 50 percent since Elon Musk took over the company in 2021. X has also faced criticism from watchdog groups and researchers who have reported several instances of ads from major brands being placed near neo-Nazi accounts, Holocaust deniers and other previously suspended users.

X hopes that the new sensitivity settings will help restore trust and confidence among advertisers and users, and boost its ad business. The company claims that it has successfully limited the reach of hate speech on its site and that it is committed to creating a safe and positive environment for everyone.

Meanwhile, X is working on a feature that will let users sort posts on profiles by different criteria. According to a screenshot posted by Andrea Conway, a designer at X, the feature will allow users to sort posts by ‘Most recent’, ‘Most liked’, or ‘Most engaged with’.

The feature is expected to help users find the most relevant and interesting posts on X profiles. The feature is not yet available to all users, but it is likely to roll out in the coming months.

X has been introducing several new features and changes since Elon Musk took over the company in 2022, such as renaming the platform, adding a subscription service, ad revenue sharing and more.