X Withdraws from MRC Brand Safety Accreditation

Yeah, this might be not the most effective timing.

Earlier this week, X quietly withdrew from an independent audit of its ad offerings, set to be conducted by Ernst & Young, which was one other step towards X gaining Media Rating Council (MRC) brand safety credentials, a key validation of its ad systems.

MRC accreditation ensures that the methodology, and the following data being provided to advertisers, is accurate and reliable, based on a full audit of the ad platform’s processes. MRC accredited platforms have to undergo an audit yearly as a way to maintain their credentials, which provides extra assurance to ad partners that they’re getting what they pay for with their campaigns.

But amid recent controversy around its ad systems, which have reportedly seen brand promotions displayed alongside racist, anti-Semitic content within the app, X has withdrawn from the method, which had been within the works for years, stemming back to previous Twitter management.  

The corporate launched its initial effort to achieve MRC accreditation back in 2021, after years of back-and-forth over Twitter potentially gaining MRC credentials, then pulling out of the method.

Before the Musk takeover, Twitter had accomplished the initial steps towards this goal, however the transition derailed progress, and set it back on its path. Then the corporate cut 80% of its staff, and renamed itself as X, and it’s since been a spotlight of increased attention on the brand safety front, purely because to the impacts that those staff reductions are prone to have had on its capability to observe and address such concerns at scale.

Perhaps that’s why X has opted out of an audit presently. X has pointed to resource constraints and “ongoing technological challenges” because the explanation why it’s not currently able to undertake the audit process. It also doesn’t have an official head of brand name safety, after probably the most recent appointees to that role moved on (or were moved on), though Digiday says that it has recently, potentially hired someone in a related role.

And yet, even without an MRC audit, X claims that its recent approaches to moderation and brand safety are working as intended.

In a blog post published last month, X CEO Linda Yaccarino claimed that the platform currently has an “average brand safety rating” of 99%, and brand suitability scores of 97%. That’s seemingly based on insights from third party measurement partners Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, with X announcing “pre-bid adjacency controls” in partnership with IAS back in August.

Though, seemingly, you would wish to work with IAS to enact this, versus it being a typical ad option within the app. Which isn’t entirely clear in X’s documentation and overviews, that such verification isn’t standard, which could also mean that these safety scores usually are not necessarily the mean for all brands, despite the fact that its tests with IAS indicated that chosen brands were protected.

In essence, it’s unclear what level of brand name safety these partnerships actually offer to regular advertisers, versus big brands that enact expanded measurement. But based on reports this week, ads from big brands are indeed being displayed alongside potentially harmful content within the app, though X is difficult that assertion with recent legal motion.

Perhaps, through this, X will have the ability to supply more assurance that its ad systems are working as intended. But straight away, it’s got some work to do to win back advertiser trust.    

An MRC audit would likely have helped, so it’s unlucky timing for the app.