Twitter's New Misinformation Policy Will Rein In Viral Tweets That Mislead Users

Twitter wants to slow down and regulate viral Tweets. In hopes of limiting the scope of misinformation on the platform, Twitter has rolled out its "crisis misinformation policy" especially in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

To ensure only factual information is disseminated on Twitter during such times of crisis, the company will use "multiple, credible, publicly available sources."

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What does this mean for inaccurate Tweets?

Twitter isn't planning to remove those Tweets, but instead all false and misleading content will carry a warning label. No users would be allowed to like, retweet, or share those Tweets.

This is what the label will look like:

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"To reduce potential harm, as soon as we have evidence that a claim may be misleading, we won¡¯t amplify or recommend content that is covered by this policy across Twitter ¨C including in the Home timeline, Search, and Explore," Yoel Roth, Twitter's Head of Safety and Integrity wrote in a blog post.

Also read: Twitter Could Let Users Post Images And Video In A Single Tweet Soon

Twitter explained what would be excluded from this moderation, which include "strong commentary, efforts to debunk or fact check, and personal anecdotes or first person accounts."

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Taking down content isn't Twitter's priority. In fact, Roth explained how certain measures including a warning label or limited engagement of fake news could be a more prudent way to "mitigate harm, while still preserving speech and records of critical global events."

Twitter wants to expand this to India

To start off the implementation of this policy, Twitter is focusing on the armed conflict in Ukraine, but plans to "update and expand the policy to include additional forms of crisis."

"The policy will supplement our existing work deployed during other global crises, such as in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and India," Roth wrote.

Also read: Elon Musk Says $44 Billion Deal To Purchase Twitter Is Temporarily On Hold

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If you understand the harm caused by no moderation on such platforms, don't get your hopes up. It's entirely possible that such content moderation efforts may be stalled indefinitely when Elon Musk takes over. Just yesterday, Musk came out as a Republican on Twitter - representing one of the two major American political parties that is largely right-leaning.

The deal between Elon Musk and Twitter seems to have also hit a roadblock after Musk demanded detailed figures about spam bot accounts on the platform. Musk has said that the deal would only be processed once he gets an assessment from Twitter.

What do you think about Twitter's efforts to stop misinformation from spreading like wildfire? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.