DoubleVerify launches AI-powered brand safety tool for Meta advertisers

DoubleVerify (DV) this week introduced a new AI-powered category for brand suitability on Meta's platforms. Announced on September 6, 2024, just one day ago, this tool enables advertisers to filter out potentially controversial news and political content, including deepfakes, from their ad placements on Meta's social media networks.

The new Inflammatory Politics and News (IPN) category utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze content and provide advertisers with greater control over where their ads appear. This development comes at a crucial time, as many countries prepare for upcoming elections and political discourse intensifies online.

According to DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski, the IPN category is designed to give advertisers more granular control over their brand safety on Meta's platforms. "As citizens around the world prepare to vote, giving advertisers the ability to choose the content they want to be aligned with is critical," Zagorski stated in the announcement.

The IPN category is built on a defined policy that outlines specific types of content for classification. This includes the spread of unverified information on important societal issues, with a particular focus on deepfake content. DoubleVerify's approach to content categorization draws from industry standards, subject matter expertise, and over a decade of customer feedback.

At the heart of this new offering is DV Universal Content Intelligence™, DoubleVerify's proprietary classification engine. This AI-powered system analyzes various content types to provide accurate classifications, ensuring comprehensive coverage and protection at scale for advertisers.

DoubleVerify's approach to content classification goes beyond automated systems. The company employs a team of Brand Safety and Suitability classification specialists who review emerging stories that could be considered controversial or challenging for advertisers. This multilateral review process evaluates language, rhetoric, and journalistic standards to ensure content meets the company's IPN category definitions.

The release of the IPN category on Meta's platforms is particularly significant given the current global political climate. With election cycles ramping up in various countries, the volume of political content and potential misinformation is expected to surge across social media platforms. DoubleVerify's tool aims to provide advertisers with a means to navigate this complex landscape while maintaining their brand integrity.

Advertisers using DoubleVerify's services can access the IPN category measurement data and insights through DV Pinnacle®, the company's unified service and analytics reporting platform. This integration allows brands to make data-driven decisions about their ad placements on Meta's platforms.

The introduction of this AI-powered brand suitability tool reflects the growing concern among advertisers about the context in which their ads appear online. As social media platforms continue to grapple with content moderation challenges, third-party solutions like DoubleVerify's IPN category offer an additional layer of protection for brands.

DoubleVerify's expansion of its brand suitability coverage to include Meta is part of a broader industry trend towards more sophisticated ad verification and brand safety tools. As digital advertising becomes increasingly complex, advertisers are seeking more granular control over their ad placements to ensure alignment with their brand values and marketing objectives.

The company's focus on AI-driven solutions also highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence in digital advertising. By leveraging AI to analyze content at scale, DoubleVerify aims to provide more accurate and timely brand safety measures than traditional manual review processes could offer.

While DoubleVerify's announcement focuses on the benefits for advertisers, the implications of such tools extend to the broader digital media ecosystem. As more advertisers adopt stringent content filtering measures, it could potentially impact the revenue streams of publishers and content creators who produce content on controversial topics.

DoubleVerify, traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DV, positions itself as a leading player in the digital media effectiveness space. The company's platform uses AI to drive outcomes for global brands by creating more effective and transparent ad transactions.

As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, tools like DoubleVerify's IPN category are likely to play an increasingly important role in how brands navigate the complex world of online content and ad placement. The effectiveness and adoption rate of such tools will be closely watched by industry observers in the coming months, particularly as election-related content ramps up on social media platforms.

Key facts

• DoubleVerify launched its Inflammatory Politics and News (IPN) category on Meta on September 6, 2024
• The IPN category is powered by DV Universal Content Intelligence™, an AI-driven classification engine
• The tool aims to filter out controversial news, political topics, and deepfakes from ad placements
• DoubleVerify employs human specialists to review emerging controversial stories
• Advertisers can access IPN category data through DV Pinnacle®, DoubleVerify's analytics platform
• The launch is timed to coincide with upcoming global elections and increased political content online
• DoubleVerify is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol DV