Twitter overcharged video advertisers due to error in its Android app

Twitter has refunded advertisers whose Android campaigns were incorrectly measured due to a technical glitch. Well, Twitter has one-upped Facebook. For more than a month, Twitter incorrectly measured brands’ video ads running on Android devices and overcharged advertisers as a result, the company said on Thursday. “We recently discovered a technical error due to a Twitter product update to Android clients that affected some video ad campaigns from November 7 to December 12. Once we discovered the issue, we resolved it and communicated with affected partners. The impact was limited given this happened only on Android clients over the course of a month. This was a technical error, not a policy or definition issue, so we are confident it has been resolved,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Twitter has refunded the affected advertisers, according to a person familiar with the matter, confirming a Business Insider report that broke the news earlier on Thursday. In some cases the refunded amount was as little as $1, the person said, though that may say as much about Twitter’s video ad prices as about the scope of the error. The glitch inflated Twitter’s video ad measurements by as much as 35%, according to Business Insider. The Twitter spokesperson declined to comment.