Sean Marshall Twitter announced yesterday that they will enable users to now flag down any Tweet that they deem as misinformation. Users will be able to flag posts the same way they report spam & posts that display racism.
Twitter’s Saftey Team had this to say:
“We’re testing a feature for you to report Tweets that seem misleading — as you see them. Starting today, some people in the U.S., South Korea, and Australia will find the option to flag a Tweet as ‘It’s misleading’ after clicking on Report Tweet. We’re assessing if this is an effective approach so we’re starting small. We may not take action on and cannot respond to each report in the experiment, but your input will help us identify trends so that we can improve the speed and scale of our broader misinformation work.”
Twitter may be holding a double-edged sword here because this may kick open the door for people that disagree with certain posts to now flag down these posts as misinformation, which may ultimately lead to a user’s suspension or removal. However, this move does feel like an add-on to the rules they have already in place for misinformation/conspiracy theories on Covid-19 & “for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.”, which covers “posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process.”
How do you feel about this? Do you think that this will be a permanent fix?
