--- title: Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Advertisements description: Social media has generally been free of the disclaimers and other regulatory demands that U.S. authorities impose on television and radio. canonical: https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-25T02:52:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:02.569Z article:section: Politics og:title: Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Ads og:description: Congress is considering new legislation that would make disclosures mandatory og:url: https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68923a3bb4f22b41/6988e343ab6d77fddd6b05a9/gettyimages-621183344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4339 og:image:height: 2441 og:image:alt: US-TECHNOLOGY-TWITTER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Ads twitter:description: Congress is considering new legislation that would make disclosures mandatory twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68923a3bb4f22b41/6988e343ab6d77fddd6b05a9/gettyimages-621183344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Ads Following a U.S. Regulatory Threat > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Facebook Says 10 Million People in the U.S. Saw Russia-Linked Ads [Watch (HLS stream): Facebook Says 10 Million People in the U.S. Saw Russia-Linked Ads](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s2uYi0hd.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2017-10-03. Facebook said that the 3,000 Russia-linked advertisements it turned over to congressional investigators on Monday were seen on the social network by an estimated 10 million people in the United States._ by [David Ingram / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## David Ingram / Reuters Oct 25, 2017 2:52 AM UTC  This Nov. 4, 2016 photo shows Twitter's logo at its San Francisco headquarters. This Nov. 4, 2016 photo shows Twitter's logo at its San Francisco headquarters. Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images by [David Ingram / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## David Ingram / Reuters Oct 25, 2017 2:52 AM UTC (SAN FRANCISCO) — Twitter said on Tuesday it would add labels to election-related advertisements and say who is behind each of them, after a threat of regulation from the United States over the lack of disclosure for political spending on social media. Twitter, acting a month after Facebook launched a similar overhaul of political ads, said in a blog post it would start a website so people could see identities of buyers, targeting demographics and total ad spend by election advertisers. Silicon Valley social media firms and the political ads that run on their websites have generally been free of the disclaimers and other regulatory demands that U.S. authorities impose on television, radio and satellite services. Calls for that to change have grown, however, after Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google said in recent weeks that Russian operatives and affiliates bought ads and used fake names on their services to spread divisive messages in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Russia has denied interfering in the election. Citing Russia-linked ads, Facebook last month said it for the first time would make it possible for anyone to see any political ads that run on Facebook, no matter whom they target. The attempts at self-regulation by Facebook and Twitter have not satisfied lawmakers. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said in a statement that Twitter’s announcement was “no substitute for updating our laws.” A Democrat, she is co-sponsoring legislation that would make disclosures mandatory. Twitter said its changes would take effect first in the United States and then globally. The new approach to ads would be visible in people’s Twitter feeds, where election ads would have the label “promoted by political account,” the company said. “To make it clear when you are seeing or engaging with an electioneering ad, we will now require that electioneering advertisers identify their campaigns as such,” Bruce Falck, Twitter’s general manager of revenue product, said in the blog post. Twitter said it would limit targeting options for election ads, although it did not say how, and introduce stronger penalties for election advertisers who violate policies. The company said it would also allow people to see all ads currently running on Twitter, election-related or otherwise. Twitter’s latest move would not tackle its longstanding problem with fake or abusive accounts that some users and lawmakers also blame for influencing last year’s U.S. election. Unlike Facebook, Twitter allows anonymous accounts and automated accounts, or bots, making the service more difficult to police. Transparency by itself “is not a solution to the deployment of bots that amplify fake or misleading content or to the successful efforts of online trolls to promote divisive messages,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. Twitter said last month it had suspended about 200 Russia-linked accounts as it investigated online efforts to influence last year’s election. The general counsels for Facebook, Google and Twitter are scheduled to testify next week before the Senate and House intelligence committees. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/"},"headline":"Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Ads Following a U.S. Regulatory Threat","datePublished":"2017-10-25T02:52:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:02.569Z","description":"Social media has generally been free of the disclaimers and other regulatory demands that U.S. authorities impose on television and radio","url":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/","keywords":["Social Media","Tech","2016 Election","politics","twitter","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68923a3bb4f22b41/6988e343ab6d77fddd6b05a9/gettyimages-621183344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Ingram / Reuters"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68923a3bb4f22b41/6988e343ab6d77fddd6b05a9/gettyimages-621183344.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-TECHNOLOGY-TWITTER","caption":"US-TECHNOLOGY-TWITTER","creditText":"Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/social-media/","name":"Social Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/","name":"Twitter Says It Will Begin Labeling Political Ads Following a U.S. Regulatory Threat"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Facebook Says 10 Million People in the U.S. Saw Russia-Linked Ads","description":"Facebook said that the 3,000 Russia-linked advertisements it turned over to congressional investigators on Monday were seen on the social network by an estimated 10 million people in the United States.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/s2uYi0hd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-03T13:49:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s2uYi0hd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/","duration":"PT1M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4996296/twitter-election-political-ad-labeling/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```