• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 20, 2019

Stateside, social networks are becoming more responsible as foreign governments threaten stricter ad regulations.

In the latest example, Twitter just announced plans to keep a closer eye on political advertising throughout European Union member states, Australia and India.

Enforcement of the expanded policy is slated to begin on March 11. After that, only certified advertisers will be allowed to run political campaign ads in those markets.

To prevent a backlog, Twitter is asking political advertisers to immediately begin applying for certification.

Twitter also plans to keep building the operational and tooling support to expand its political ad policies to other markets around the world.

“We strongly believe that meaningful transparency is the best path forward for all advertising products we offer, particularly those that are utilized in a political context,” the company stated.

The move comes amid growing calls for social-media regulation by governments worldwide.

Just this week, U.K. policymakers called on the Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) to conduct a comprehensive audit of the social-media ad marketplace.

The recommendation was included in a report published by the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, on Monday.

Although the committee singled out Facebook, it took issue with the broader social-media industry.   

“Companies like Facebook should not be allowed to behave like ‘digital gangsters’ in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law,” the committee wrote.

For its part, Twitter has been trying to appease critics of its ad practices for some time.

Last year, its launched a Political Campaigning Policy in the United States, along with an Ad Transparency Center to let anyone view ads that have been served on Twitter, along with spending data and targeting demographics.