San Francisco: Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) has reportedly started showing clickbait ads that users cannot block or report.
“X users now see unlabeled ads in their feeds” while scrolling, Mashable reported, adding that when users tap on those ads they take them to third-party websites, with no way to block or report them.
“Multiple X users have reached out to Mashable over the past few days to report seeing a new type of ad in their ‘For You’ feed that they had not previously come across on the platform”.
Unlike normal ads that are just posts from X accounts and have an “Ad” label, these new ads have no account associated with them. “The new ads also don't disclose who the advertiser is or that they are even ads,” the report mentioned.
These ads, currently being served to users on the X mobile apps, do not allow users to like or retweet the ad posts.
The report further noted that the type of content being promoted in the ads “appear to be consistent with ads found in spammy, low quality ‘chumbox' advertising”.
It is said that X has partnered with third-party advertisers in order to deal with declining ad revenue.
Last month, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said that the company will be profitable by early 2024, adding that the platform may now have 200-250 million daily active users.
Yaccarino said that “90 percent of the top 100 advertisers have returned to the platform in the last 12 weeks alone.” According to her, about 1,500 advertisers have returned to the platform.
X has yet to announce an annual profit in its 13 years and has struggled to maintain profitability.
With inputs from IANS