There is no lack of misleading information as some people deliberately or by a mistake spread various unconfirmed information. Twitter wants to improve the situation. For example, ahead of the 2020 election, the social networking service began showing a warning if a person tried to retweet a tweet that was labeled for potentially including misleading information.
Last month, Twitter announced several temporary changes ahead of the presidential election. For example, the social media network decided to label tweets that include premature claims of victory. It is worth mentioning that social networking service is now planning to expand that warning functionality to when a person tries to like a labeled tweet.
People should keep in mind that the functionality is rolling out on the web and iOS around the globe this week. Based on the information provided by Twitter, it will come to Android in the coming weeks.
Twitter and main findings
Based on the information provided by the company, a warning decreased quote tweets of misleading information by 29%. Importantly, it seems Twitter is hoping this new warning will improve the situation. This way company wants to reduce the amount of likes on labeled content.
People should keep in mind that the warnings ahead of retweets and likes are not the only restrictions the social networking service recently put in place to add some friction to the platform and reduce the spread of misinformation.
At the moment, when users try to share a retweet, Twitter will open a window to compose a quote tweet instead of immediately sharing that tweet with the followers. Importantly, a user does not have to write anything, though, and this user can still post a standard retweet. A user just has to click on the “Retweet” button in the compose window.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate the headlines, and it is important to fight against misleading information. It is worth noting that misleading information has the potential to affect the situation. Twitter and other famous social networking sites should work harder to minimize the damage caused by such information.
Nevertheless, it is all but impossible to identify all misleading tweets. It means users from all over the world should pay more attention to the information on social media networks. However, social media networks, along with authorities and users should join forces to cope with misleading information. This way it will be easier to make social media more inclusive for people from around the world.
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