UPDATED 21:59 EDT / AUGUST 02 2021

POLICY

Twitter teams up with the AP and Reuters to address misinformation

Twitter Inc. announced today that it has begun a new partnership with the Associated Press and Reuters in a collaborative effort to tackle the spread of misinformation.

The company explained in a blog post that up until now its curation team has been responsible for adding to topics that are “noteworthy, controversial, sensitive, or may contain potentially misleading information.” That means adding context to stories, giving people trusted sources when they search for various topics, and of course, labeling posts if they fall into the category of misinformation.

That won’t change, but Twitter said these new partnerships will speed up the process. Context will be added to posts in real-time, “especially where facts are in dispute or when Twitter’s Curation team doesn’t have the specific expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting on Twitter.”

The partnership will also work in a more proactive way to address dubious information. Rather than wait for something to go viral, Twitter will now provide context to topics as soon as it is anticipated that the said topics will generate a lot of interest.

Both news companies will work with Twitter’s crowdsourced fact-checking system Birdwatch, whose participants will receive feedback when needed. The news entities, however, won’t be involved in handing out bans or removing certain posts. None of the triumvirate has so far talked about financial terms.

“Trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day,” said Hazel Baker, global head of UGC newsgathering at Reuters. “Those values also drive our commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation.”

Tom Januszewski, the AP’s vice president of global business development, said this partnership is the core of what AP does, adding that the company “has a long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism.” Both AP and Reuters already work with Facebook Inc. in a fact-checking capacity.

Twitter said the partnership will concentrate only on content that appears in the English language although as it evolves more languages and time zones could be covered.

Photo: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

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