Twitter recently announced a new policy to prevent alleged “misinformation,” stating that tweets containing what it considers false information during an active crisis will be hidden on the platform.
The Verge reports that Twitter announced a new policy on Thursday aiming to fight what it labels misinformation on the platform during an active crisis. The company has established new standards for blocking or hiding certain tweets if they are believed to contain misinformation.
The Easter Bunny gestures to President Joe Biden during the annual Easter egg roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 18, 2022. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo credit should read ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/Getty Images)
Yoel Roth, Twitter’s left-wing head of safety and integrity, said in a blog post detailing the policy: “Content moderation is more than just leaving up or taking down content and we’ve expanded the range of actions we may take to ensure they’re proportionate to the severity of the potential harm.”
The new policy will put larger scrutiny on false reporting of events, false allegations relating to weapons or use of force, and broader misinformation relating to atrocities and international responses. It is not uncommon for hoax tweets and misinformation to go viral during emergencies as users attempt to share unverified information.
The new policy states that tweets classified as misinformation will not be deleted or banned but will have a warning label attached requiring users to click a button to see the tweet. The tweets will also be blocked from promotion in Twitter’s newsfeed algorithm, drastically reducing their reach.
The new policy is meant to only apply to specific events, with Twitter initially applying the policy to content relating to the ongoing war in Ukraine, but Twitter expects the rules to apply to all crises going forward.
The company defines a crisis as “situations in which there is a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health, or basic subsistence.”
Read more at the Verge here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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