This seems odd.
Today, ad measurement platform DoubleVerify has issued an apology for misreporting X’s brand safety measurement info for months within its client dashboard, which could have impacted ad spending in the app.
As reported by Variety:
“From Oct. 24, 2023, to March 14, 2024, DoubleVerify’s dashboard provided the wrong data for X to advertisers. In some cases, the measurement firm showed scores as low as 70%, whereas X’s Brand Safety Rates were in fact 99.99%. DoubleVerify CEO Mark Mark Zagorski, in a message to customers April 12, apologized for the error and said the company’s dashboard now correctly shows X’s brand-safety rates.”
X’s Head of America's Monique Pintarelli has said that this error only impacted X, no other platform, and as per the above, it’s now been corrected to show X’s actual, accurate brand safety score.
Which is 99.99%.
Which, as I’ve noted previously, is seemingly impossibly high, especially considering the various reports showing that X has been hosting and/or amplifying more hate speech under Elon Musk. But that’s what X and DoubleVerify are going with, with DV’s additional placement and measurement solutions seemingly able to ensure safe brand placement, based on these measurements.
So why was DoubleVerify’s dashboard wrong for months, and can you rely on any of their data as a result?
According to the company, the error was actually only in the “graphical visualization” of X’s brand safety data within its “Pinnacle” dashboard, with the underlying data feed being correct.
But that, strangely, suggests that the dashboard itself wasn’t actually connected to a data feed from X. So D.V. was listing whatever graphic it chose?
Pretty weird.
In any event, DoubleVerify says that it’s now double-checking its systems.
“DoubleVerify is working closely with X to ensure that all future reports reflect the accurate Brand Safety performance of campaigns run on X’s platform. We are also conducting a thorough review of our processes and systems to ensure this issue does not occur in the future.”
I don’t know, this all seems very odd, and doesn’t imbue a lot of reassurance about D.V.’s listings.
But we can only go on what they share, and at present, the company is reassuring X ad partners that their ad placements are safe.
How long, do you think, till Elon launches legal action against them for impacting X’s ad revenue?
You can read DoubleVerify’s full statement on the error here.
