Twitter Announces New Crisis Misinformation Policy
Twitter’s Head of Safety and Integrity, Yoel Roth, announced the policy via a recent blog post. In the blog post, Twitter described crises as “situations in which there is a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health, or basic subsistence.” So, if a tweet violates the new policy, Twitter will show a warning for that tweet and disable the like, retweet, and share functionality for it.
According to Twitter, the team behind the development of the new policy has worked with various global experts and human rights organizations to develop the crisis misinformation framework since last year. Using the framework, Twitter will now verify the content of tweets from multiple credible and publicly available sources such as conflict monitoring groups, open-source investigators, humanitarian organizations, and more.
If a tweet from a high-profile account, state-run media account, or an official government account is found with misleading or false information, Twitter will take the necessary steps under its new policy. It will show a new warning for the tweet for violating “the Twitter Rules on sharing false or misleading info that might bring harm to crisis-affected populations.” You can check out the preview of the warning in the header image.
Users will only be able to view the tweet by tapping/ clicking the “View” button. Furthermore, Twitter will prevent the spread of the tweet by curbing its amplification on the platform.
As per Twitter, some examples of tweets that might come with a crisis misinformation policy warning include tweets containing false coverage or event reporting, false allegations regarding the use of force, weapons, and territorial sovereignty, and false or misleading allegations of war crimes. With this, Twitter aims to prevent mass human conflicts due to mere tweets from influential individuals or organizations, much like what it did when fake news about COVID-19 was on the rise.
So, what do you think about Twitter’s new crisis misinformation policy? Do you think it will be useful to curb the spread of misleading content on the platform? Let us know in the comments below.
