Twitter said it will clamp down on the spread of false information ahead of the November U.S. polls by getting rid of tweets that call for users to meddle with the electoral process through hate, disorder and other inappropriate behavior.
The steps announced on Friday shows how social media entities are putting more teeth on efforts to contain disinformation prior to the elections. More people depend on social media to be guided on the process of casting votes in the face of an ongoing health crisis. At the same time, misleading information abound in these sites.
In a blog post, Twitter disclosed that starting next week, users of the platform will receive a prompt that will direct them to trustworthy information before they are allowed to retweet content that has been tagged as fallacious.
Social media firms have made serious steps to curb potential disorder on their sites that users can use to their advantage and sabotage the ethics of the electoral proceedings. Just days ago, Facebook disclosed new steps to combat misinformation ahead of the voting, including deleting posts whose objective is to intimidate voters.
Twitter currently has labels to certain tweets if they contain false information about the pandemic, elections, and other subjects. A confusing tweet from a U.S. public figure or an account comprised of over 100,000 followers or numerous engagements will include a warning that requires users to press to read the tweet.
In an attempt to control the spread of tweets, Twitter is calibrating its algorithm to prevent tweets from showing up in feeds that merely simply rely on the volume of likes they get. Currently, the tweets that users see are arranged via an algorithm that includes content from accounts they follow as well as tweets that other users like.
Twitter said they expect the new steps will further limit "the visibility of misleading information and will encourage users to reconsider if they want to amplify their Tweets," CNET reported.
The social media giant said it will mark tweets that include announcements of premature election wins, rerouting users to its legit U.S. election page. Concerns have arisen that a presidential candidate will declare victory even before all the balloting results have been verified as final and official.
To confirm the results, Twitter said it will require an official announcement from local election authorities that carry out independent election calls. Social media companies have been pressed to employ a heavy-fisted approach to polls-related deception.
