There is so much information going around in our various social media networks, messaging apps, email threads, and even SMS. Those who are diligent enough will verify this information first but there are also a lot of people who may take things they see at face value, especially if it’s from someone they consider a “reliable” source. Twitter is one of those cesspools of both useful and misleading information and now they’re being more proactive in applying warning labels to those that may be considered false and even harmful information.
Just last February, Twitter introduced a label for tweets that contain “synthetic and manipulated data”. They will also now be applying labels to tweets that may contain potentially harmful and misleading information related to COVID-19. The label is also retroactive so your past tweets that will be flagged will also have the warning label. The label will have the text “Get the facts about COVID-19” which will lead to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted sources with additional and verified information.
There may also be warning onto a tweet, fully covering the tweet, saying that “some or all of the content shared in the tweet conflicts with guidance from public health experts regarding covid-19”. You will still have the option to view the tweet but at least you have been warned. But if you want to learn more, you can tap that label and you will be led to verified information a well.
They have three broad categories for false or misleading information and their action depends on severity. Misleading information is for those that have been confirmed to be false. Disputed claims is for those whose accuracy, credibility, or truthfulness has been contested or unknown. Unverified claims is still unconfirmed at the time of posting. The last one will not have any action taken while the first one will be labeled or removed. The second one will be labeled and will have a warning as well.
Twitter says they have internal systems that are proactively monitoring the content on covid-19 that goes through their platform. With information and misinformation sometimes being a matter of life or death, social media networks need to step up their game to make sure the verified and credible information reaches their users.
