In a run up to United States (US) Presidential elections, Twitter is working on a new feature to add coloured warning labels beneath misleading tweets sent out by politicians and public figures according to a leaked demo, NBC News reported on Thursday.
The micro-blogging site is experimenting with a new feature that will add brightly coloured labels directly beneath tweets spreading harmful misinformation and lies sent out through accounts of prominent public figures. The labels would be the same size as the tweets with the warning label reading “Harmfully Misleading” as per the NBC report.
The correction would be based on community-wide feedback as well as inputs from fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform through a new "community reports" feature, which is similar to Wikipedia, the report said.
The company has not disclosed any information as to when it will roll out these misinformation features. Twitter confirming the demo had said that it was a mockup for an option that would garner community feedback on misleading tweets. It will be testing similar features to address misinformation,
The platform has been bullish on curbing the spread of misinformation on its platform and had recently updated its Twitter Rules for users adding guidelines related to doctored content. These guidelines were based on community feedback that the platform had gathered based on a public survey. It will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people according to a public statement. The company had also said that the new rules prohibit sharing synthetic or manipulated material that’s likely to cause harm. Material that is manipulated but isn’t necessarily harmful will get a warning label. These rules will go into effect starting March 5.
Twitter is not the only platform working towards curbing misinformation on its platform.
Social media giant Facebook in January had also announced its crackdown on altered deepfake videos manipulated through AI.
According to its public statement, Facebook’s strategy is to collaborate with over 50 experts from different backgrounds, including technical, policy, media, legal, civic and academic, to build strategies related to fake media detection and policy development to navigate the same.
Social media platforms including Facebook, Google, Twitter and ByteDance, are in talks to form an industry-wide alliance to counter fake news on their platforms in India, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday. The proposed alliance will be named as the Information Trust Alliance (ITA). The discussions for the same are being led by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the report said.