Twitter Moves To Curb Political Disinformation

Hoping to prevent the viral spread of false information, Twitter will no longer allow users to “like” misleading posts by politicians, and will only allow retweets of those posts if users add their own commentary.

The company also plans to flag misleading posts by politicians by requiring users to tap through a warning label before reading the post. In addition, Twitter's algorithms will not recommend those posts.

The new policies will also apply to misleading posts by political campaigns, as well as people with more than 100,000 followers.

The company's new rules are part of an effort to “increase context and encourage more thoughtful consideration before Tweets are amplified,” the company said Friday in a blog post authored by Vijaya Gadde and Kayvon Beykpour.

Twitter also will place warning labels on premature victory claims -- meaning claims that a candidate won an election before either an announcement by election officials, or a projection by at least two national news outlets.

advertisement

advertisement

The moves are the latest in a series of restrictions aimed at preventing election interference.

Last year, Twitter said it would ban all political ads from its platform. More recently, the company said it will label or remove misleading information the “civic process” -- including misleading information about voting.

In addition, Twitter will encourage users to add their own comments before retweeting any posts -- not just posts by politicians. The company will change its settings to show the “quote tweet” screen to people who click on the “retweet” button.

“Though this adds some extra friction for those who simply want to Retweet, we hope it will encourage everyone to not only consider why they are amplifying a Tweet, but also increase the likelihood that people add their own thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation,” Gadde and Beykpour write.

The company is already testing that shift, and plans to fully implement it by October 20.

Also, Twitter will no longer place “liked by” or “followed by” recommendations from people that users don't already follow in their timelines.

“We don’t believe the “Like” button provides sufficient, thoughtful consideration prior to amplifying Tweets to people who don’t follow the author of the Tweet, or the relevant topic that the Tweet is about,” write Gadde and Beykpour.

Next story loading loading..