Twitter has begun to ramp up its efforts to fight the spread of misinformation ahead of the 2020 election season. According to a demo leaked to NBC News, the social media site will add brightly colored labels with the words “harmfully misleading” beneath any untruths posted by public figures or politicians. Fact checkers and journalists verified by Twitter will then have the opportunity to correct the statements in a new “community reports” feature. The leaked demo compared it to Wikipedia.
From NBC News:
Examples of misinformation [in the demo] included a false tweet about whistleblowers by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a tweet about gun background checks by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and a tweet by an unverified Twitter account posting a doctored video of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Twitter has confirmed that management is considering the proposal as one version of a new policy to target disinformation, which will be unveiled on March 5th. “We’re exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it.”