Following a BBC investigation that found it possible to target users who had expressed an interest in divisive keywords such as “transphobic”, “white supremacists” and “anti-gay”, Twitter has issued an apology for allowing advertisements micro-targeted certain demographics including neo-Nazis, homophobes and other hate groups.

According to the BBC:

We created a generic advert from an anonymous Twitter account, saying “Happy New Year”. We then targeted three different audiences based on sensitive keywords. Twitter’s website said that ads on its platform would be reviewed prior to being launched, and the BBC’s ad initially went into a “pending” state. But soon afterwards, it was approved and ran for a few hours until we stopped it. In that time, 37 users saw the post and two of them clicked on a link attached, which directed them to a news article about memes. Running the ad cost £3.84.

The BBC additionally ran a campaign using the keywords “islamophobes”, “islamaphobia”, “islamophobic” and ‘#islamophobic’ Twitter offered a potential to reach 92,900 to 114,000 Twitter users.

The publication also targeted an audience of 13 to 24-year-olds using the keywords “anorexic”, “bulimic”, “anorexia” and “bulimia” – with Twitter estimating the target audience 20,000 people. Following the BBC posting, it was seen by 255 users, and 14 people clicked on the link, before the campaign was stopped. Read more via Branding in Asia