By Adedapo Adesanya
Twitter has announced that it will start alerting users when a tweet makes disputed or misleading claims about the coronavirus.
The social media platform made this known in the latest in a wave of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront an outbreak of virus-related misinformation on their sites.
With this move, Twitter joins Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, to put similar systems in place.
According to Mr Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, said, “Our goal is to make it easy for people to find credible information on Twitter.”
“Today, we’re introducing new labels and warning messages on harmful misleading information — beginning with misleading discussions about COVID19,” he added.
Mr Roth said the platform has historically applied a “lighter touch” when enforcing similar policies on misleading tweets but said the company is working to improve the technology around the labels.
“Our teams are using and improving on internal systems to proactively monitor content related to COVID-19. These systems help ensure we’re not amplifying Tweets with these warnings or labels and detecting the high-visibility content quickly.
“Additionally, we’ll continue to rely on trusted partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm. Given the dynamic situation, we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission.
“We’ll learn a lot as we use these new labels, and are open to adjusting as we explore labeling different types of misleading information.
“This process is ongoing and we’ll work to make sure these and other labels and warnings show up across Twitter. Embedded Tweets and Tweets viewed by people not logged into Twitter may still appear without a label,” Twitter stated.
The platform noted that while false or misleading content can take many different forms, it will take action based on three broad categories:
On misleading information — statements or assertions that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts, such as public health authorities.
Another is disputed claims — statements or assertions in which the accuracy, truthfulness, or credibility of the claim is contested or unknown.
And the final is unverified claims — information (which could be true or false) that is unconfirmed at the time it is shared.
Twitter also said it will continue to introduce new labels to provide context around different types of unverified claims and rumors as needed.
