Misinformation has been a major cause of concern of late. A lot of untoward incidents have taken place in the past due to the misinformation being spread through social media. However, it refuses to wan despite self-regulation measures being taken by social media apps like WhatsApp and Facebook and now Twitter seems to have joined the league.

Needless to say, Twitter plays a huge role in the way a story travels from one person to another. And the piece of news gets all the more important if it is being tweeted by a public figure. There is however no guarantee whether the piece of information shared by a public figure is reliable or not. It could possibly be a byproduct of his/ her propaganda or maybe the person wants you to believe in something that suits his agenda. Who knows? One cannot verify until one has adequate proof against it.

However, to curb the spread of misinformation, Twitter is now working on a new feature that would add bright coloured labels below tweets by the public figures if they are found to be incorrect or misleading. As per a report published in NBC News, the tweets reported by the journalists, fact-checkers as misleading will get a bright coloured label beneath it. NBC posted screenshots from the leaked demo video that showed a bright orange label under a tweet from US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

"We're exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more contexts for Tweets on Twitter. This is a design mockup for one option that would involve community feedback. Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it," a Twitter source told CNET.

The feature is only being tested and has not been rolled out yet. There is also no clarity about its release date and time.

Once the feature is rolled out, It will be extremely useful in India, as the country is badly infected with misinformation. It is not an unknown fact that India has the largest number of social media users in the world across platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and more. A lot of misinformation travels through one social media platform to another.

In the wake of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and anti-Article 370 protests, a lot of fake stories, hate speech spread through social media and it led to various cases of mob attacks and lynchings across the country. Several prominent figures too fell prey to the fake news menace and ended up sharing them on social media. Once Twitter rolls the feature out, it will help somewhat help in keeping the situation under control if not entirely.