UPDATED 23:11 EDT / FEBRUARY 20 2020

POLICY

Twitter could soon label tweets containing misleading information

Twitter Inc. is thinking about adding colored labels to content that contains lies and misinformation, according to a leaked demo obtained by NBC today.

The company has confirmed that the demo is real, although the labelling of lies is in the testing process and Twitter isn’t sure when the feature will be rolled out.

In the demo, when a public figure tweets something that could be deemed as misinformation, it might be corrected by both fact checkers and journalists. Users can also participate in getting to the truth, something Twitter said will be a “community report” in the style of Wikipedia.

“We’re exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told NBC. “Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it.”

If Twitter considers a tweet to be “harmfully misleading,” a large orange or red box will appear below that tweet. The box will tell the reader that the tweet has violated community policy.

Some examples that Twitter gave included a false tweet about whistleblowers by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Another was a tweet about gun background checks by Senator Bernie Sanders, and yet another was the now famous deepfake video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg, was himself recently guilty of posting a doctored video that made it look like his fellow debaters were gobsmacked by his question. He was soon found out, and it wasn’t a good look for Bloomberg.

In fact, since Twitter this month announced that such doctored videos would be labeled, it’s strange that Bloomberg’s video didn’t get the “altered” and “deceptive” tag. The video was certainly supposed to cause harm to other candidates.

Another thing that Twitter is mulling over is offering people points and badges if they are good community members and post in good faith. They can be further rewarded if they “provide critical context to help people understand information they see.”

As times goes by, people with no points might be seen as the trolls they are. Like Wikipedia, facts can be edited and revised. The tough part may be not coming down hard on someone who merely has a good counter-argument.

“Together, we act to help each other understand what’s happening in the world, and protect each other from those who would drive us apart,” Twitter concluded.

Image: Elkekarin/Flickr

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