Twitter bans ads for Russian media outlets ‘immediately’

A BBC weather presenter struggled to contain a fit of giggles after a caption error labelled her an “ex-offender” during a live broadcast. Kawser Quamer had just started giving the forecast on BBC Reporting Scotland when the words “Aaron Ramsay – Ex-offender” flashed up on screen.

Minutes later another mistake happened when the words “Julie Cree – Throughcare Support Worker” flashed up.

Quamer fought to suppress laughter, occasionally turning away to regain composure on the lunchtime programme on Wednesday.

And when the camera panned back to newsreader Catriona Shearer, the words “Vicky Stewart – Aaron’s Fiancee” appeared on screen. Twitter has banned Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik from advertising on the social media platform.

The social networking site said the decision was based on “retrospective work” it had done on last year’s US presidential election and a US intelligence report which concluded the two media outlets had tried to influence the election.

“Twitter has made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today and Sputnik, effective immediately,” a statement from the site’s global public policy team said.

“This decision was based on the retrospective work we’ve been doing around the 2016 US election.”