Twitter may start categorizing your tweets
We rank Twitter as one of the first companies in the fight against misleading content, and it appears that its latest attempt is a graded warning naming system that changes depending on how wrong you are, according to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong. There are so far three levels of disinformation warning flags: the Get the latest tag, the Stay informed tag and the Deceiver tag.
The accuracy of a Tweet determines whether Twitter's systems handle one of these three ratings, each of which includes a prompt to direct users to additional information. These pages may ostensibly link to a Twitter formatted page or to a vetted external source. As is the case with coronavirus misinformation on Twitter and the US presidential election.
This feature can help reduce the spread of misinformation or at least provide important context for issues that may be too precise to fit within 280 characters.
Twitter and misinformation:
This feature raises concerns about censorship, given the way social platforms have suppressed moderate Palestinian voices in recent weeks amid the Israeli conflict.
Twitter's algorithms have failed previously. Mislabeling facts as fake news can have lasting repercussions.
It is not clear when this feature will be launched. It is also not clear if there are consequences for users who are caught repeatedly spreading misinformation.
Although all this is still technically uncertain at the moment. However, the researcher has accurately anticipated many developments via Twitter in recent months. Including the debut of the Tip Jar feature and the relaunch of the Public Verification Program.
And between addressing potentially harmful misinformation about the Coronavirus and curbing the spread of conspiracies around the 2020 presidential elections, social media companies have launched a set of new features aimed at curbing the spread of disinformation.
And this time last year, Twitter added a prompt to alert you if you hadn't read an article before retweeting it.
And in January, Twitter launched Birdwatch, a crowdsourcing feature that gave a small group of users from across the political spectrum the tools to validate tweets.
Notes are initially visible only on a dedicated site. But Twitter said it plans to integrate it into its platform when a broad and diverse consensus is reached.