Twitter announced that it has banned ads from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, citing that cyber-security company’s business model conflicts with its advertising rules and due to US government’s decision to ban agencies from using Kaspersky software over spying fears.
Meanwhile, Lab’s co-founder Eugene Kaspersky in an open letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey mentioned that he unexpectedly received an email from Twitter in January this year, informing Lab about an advertising ban on all its official accounts where it announces new posts on its various blogs on cybersecurity
Eugene Kaspersky wrote: “We haven’t violated any written – or unwritten – rules, and our business model is quite simply the same template business model that’s used throughout the whole cybersecurity industry: We provide users with products and services, and they pay us for them.
“Twitter, if this is a matter of a decision being made in error, please openly admit this; people’d forgive you – everyone makes mistakes! I think that would be the only civilized way to quash any doubts about potential political censorship on Twitter.”
Jack Dorsey yesterday admitted his ‘mistake’ to give an early timeline for for an improved transparency service on Twitter months after doing so.