According to a blog post published by the business on Thursday, Twitter will bring back features that would encourage factual information about the US midterm elections in November and crack down on tweets that are incorrect or misleading.
Civil rights advocates and experts on internet misinformation claim that social media and tech companies are failing to do enough to stop the spread of false information, such as the claim that US Vice President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.
All 435 members in the US House of Representatives and nearly a third of the 100 seats in the US Senate are up for election in the midterm elections on November 8, and Twitter says it will follow its civic integrity policy, which it announced in 2018.
The policy forbids users from uploading deceptive material meant to discourage people from voting as well as assertions meant to erode public trust in an election, including erroneous claims regarding the results of elections.
The potential of “future instigation of violence” was cited by Twitter as the reason for permanently suspending Donald Trump from the service last year, days after his followers stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The San Francisco-based business, which has filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk to enforce the terms of their $44 billion (approximately Rs. 3,50,100 crore) acquisition agreement, claimed to have tested ways to stop erroneous tweets from being forwarded to other users through alerts.
According to Twitter, the testing prevented 1.6 million fewer people from viewing false content each month.
In order to “prebunk,” or refute falsehoods before they go further online, information prompts are incorporated into user timelines as part of attempts to combat misinformation, as those made during the 2020 presidential election.
Aryan Jakhar works as an Editor-in-Chief at The Shining Media. Also, he is an editor at YouthPolitician (digital media situated in Taiwan). He writes his opinions on social issues at YouthKiAwaaz and also on his blogger website.
