Elon Musk's X Addresses Its Brand Safety Score Error

X (formerly Twitter) is addressing a recent issue in its brand safety score on DoubleVerify, a platform utilized by major media advertisers.

For four and a half months, the social media giant's brand safety rating on DoubleVerify displayed low figures, raising concerns among advertisers and prompting a reassessment of advertising strategies.

The issue, identified by DoubleVerify, revolved around a graphical error in the display of X's brand safety rating.

Although the underlying data remained accurate, Elon Musk's company believes the misrepresented rating led to hesitancy among advertisers in allocating funds toward X's platform.

X Addresses the Error

X Head of Business Operations Joe Benarroch told FOX Business that "no platform should be grading their own homework," and highlighted the significance of third-party verification for ensuring brand safety. 

"Don’t tell us that our brand is safe, let somebody else tell us our brand is safe and the whole marketplace dumped an entire amount of cash into these companies, DoubleVerify being one," he explained.

"We deepened our partnership with DoubleVerify at the request of every single media holding company and at the request of every single big brand marketer.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino also weighed in on the issue, urging a reconsideration of decisions made based on the erroneous data. 

Since joining @X, I've had hundreds of meetings with Media Holding Companies and Brands to specifically discuss Brand Safety. Advertisers depend on tools and accurate ratings to determine ad partnerships. We've acted on every request — building more capabilities and establishing… https://t.co/4xQEpvfvCi

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) April 13, 2024

DoubleVerify CEO Apologizes

DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski acknowledged the graphical error and assured customers of the accuracy of the underlying data. 

In a letter, he stated:

"This display error occurred over four and a half months from October 24, 2023, to March 14th, 2024, when it was corrected by DV. All current and retroactive Brand Safety data is now correctly represented in Pinnacle. The display error was not present in any other area in the UI, including the Incident Reporting and the Rollover Data Detail."

Zagorski reinstated DoubleVerify's commitment to accuracy and serious reporting, taking full responsibility for the inaccurate visual representation and lower Brand Safety Rate the platform displayed.

"We apologize for any confusion this may have caused to X and to our customers in the course of reviewing your campaign performance on X,” he added.

The issue comes in light of X's major advertisers opting out of the platform last December, with analysts projecting losses worth $75 million.

Since then, X has undertaken significant efforts to enhance brand safety measures under CEO Linda Yaccarino's guidance.