Twitter wants to confront the false news circulating on the social network with greater conviction. Especially those related to very sensitive issues such as electoral processes and the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, it has begun to test a new procedure to report tweets that spread disinformation on both topics.
Thus, users have more tools to report incorrect or misleading content that is published on the platform. According to TechCrunch, the test will initially focus on the United States, South Korea and Australia. However, the option could be expanded globally if it offers positive results.
Those who access this new Twitter feature will find it by choosing “Report tweet” in the context menu of the publication in question. Once there, an option will be displayed through which they can indicate that the tweet is misleading. Subsequently, the social network will show three categories: politics, health, or “something else” .
By selecting the first alternative, they will be able to indicate whether the content of the tweet spreads erroneous information about the elections in their country; in the second, they will have the possibility to establish if the wrong data is related to COVID-19.
More options against disinformation on Twitter
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash It is worth noting that Twitter does not change the way in which it processes complaints of false news or misinformation . What it does do is allow users to be more specific in explaining why they are reporting the tweets in question.
Twitter already has a series of policies related to the distribution of misleading information about COVID-19 and other sensitive topics, but it wants to make it easier for users to make malicious content visible.
Since the pandemic broke out, Twitter – like Facebook – has been overwhelmed with false news related to the disease itself, its treatment, and more recently the vaccination process.
On the political side, meanwhile, one of the most emblematic cases in recent years has been that of Donald Trump and his false accusations about fraud in the last US presidential elections; Issue that earned him his permanent expulsion from the social network.
Although Twitter has a program called Birdwatch , the community initiative to combat false news has not advanced from its instance as a pilot test.
