In the case of contribution from community members, Twitter will supposedly give out “community badge” to those who “contribute in good faith and act like a good neighbor”.
Twitter is testing coloured labels that will appear beneath tweets of politicians and other public figures that have misinformation or lies. According to NBC News, which accessed a leaked demo video of Twitter’s new misinformation features, the bright red and orange coloured labels warning users of “Harmfully Misleading” information will appear directly below the tweets that have misinformation.
Further beneath the warning will be corrections to misleading information by verified fact-checkers, journalists and even community members similar to Wikipedia, revealed a screenshot from the demo video. This is one iteration of the many versions that Twitter is reportedly working on to counter misinformation on its platform.
In the case of contribution from community members, Twitter will supposedly give out “community badge” to those who “contribute in good faith and act like a good neighbor”. Essentially, Twitter is looking to encourage community members to write “Notes” that will help “provide critical context that is essential to public well-being” to earn points. A community-based feedback system on which tweets can be harmfully misleading will likely make it easier for the platform weed out misinformation.
“We’re exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter. Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it,” a Twitter spokesperson told NBC News. However, there is no timeline on when the features will be available publicly.
The bright red and orange coloured labels warning users of “Harmfully Misleading” information will appear directly below the tweets that have misinformation. (Image: NBC News)
For instance, an orange warning label can be seen beneath a tweet about US gun policy from US politician Bernie Sanders. The orange card is labelled “Harmfully Misleading” and it read, “Twitter Community reports have identified this tweet as violating the Community Policy on Harmfully Misleading Information. The tweet’s visibility will be reduced.” Tweets with corrections on the US gun policy statistics from community members those who have “community badge” can also be seen below the warning badge.
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Social media sites including Twitter is gearing up for 2020 US presidential election. The companies are under pressure to prevent the spread of misinformation after alleged Russian interference to sway the 2016 US presidential elections. Twitter said earlier this month that it will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people. The platform also banned all political ads.