Twitter To Hide Tweets That Share Misinformation During Crisis

Twitter has introduced a new policy called the "crisis misinformation policy".

Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Thursday, 19 May, announced that it is introducing a "crisis misinformation policy" that would ensure viral misinformation or misleading content is not amplified or recommended by the platform during major crisis times, such as situations of "armed conflict, public health emergencies, and large-scale natural disasters".

With the focus on the war in Ukraine by Russia, which began on 24 February, the policy would focus on international armed conflict and said that it will keep on adding more forms of crisis.

"In times of crisis, misleading information can undermine public trust and cause further harm to already vulnerable communities. Alongside our existing work to make reliable information more accessible during crisis events, this new approach will help to slow the spread by us of the most visible, misleading content, particularly that which could lead to severe harms," a blog post by Yoel Roth, head of safety and integrity, Twitter, read.

As soon as there is evidence that a content is misleading, it would not be amplified or recommended in the platform, which would include the Home timeline, search as well as explore option, it read.

Additionally, verified account or handle, which has high visibility, a warning notice would be added in such tweets, if found misleading.

"We will prioritize adding warning notices to highly visible Tweets and Tweets from high profile accounts, such as state-affiliated media accounts, verified, official government accounts," the post read.

The notices will be, "False coverage or event reporting, or information that mischaracterizes conditions on the ground as a conflict evolves", "Demonstrably false or misleading allegations of war crimes or mass atrocities against specific populations", among others.

However, the post mentioned that fact-checks, first person accounts or personal anecdotes, and commentaries would not fall within the ambit of the new policy.

Moreover, the tweets that will have a warning notice, that users need to click before reading/watching the content, the likes, shares and retweets will be disabled for them.

"We’ve found that not amplifying or recommending certain content, adding context through labels, and in severe cases, disabling engagement with the Tweets, are effective ways to mitigate harm, while still preserving speech and records of critical global events," it added.