Twitter has tightened its policies against COVID-related misinformation on its platforms. The social media giant in a blog revealed that the company will start putting labels and warnings besides tweets that are potentially harmful and could mislead the readers. In March, Twitter had announced a new set of guidelines "to address content that goes directly against guidance on COVID-19 from authoritative sources of global and local public health information."

Twitter said in a blog post that it will use a new set of labels and warning messages to mark tweets found to be spreading harmful information. "We may use these labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a Tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content. This will make it easier to find facts and make informed decisions about what people see on Twitter," the blog read.

The microblogging site also revealed that it will label the tweets that were posted before Twitter made the announcement. Twitter will label fake tweets and misleading tweets irrespective of who posts them.

"Earlier this year, we introduced a new label for Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media. Similar labels will now appear on Tweets containing potentially harmful, misleading information related to COVID-19. This will also apply to Tweets sent before today. These labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the Tweet.Depending on the propensity for harm and type of misleading information, warnings may also be applied to a Tweet. These warnings will inform people that the information in the Tweet conflicts with public health experts' guidance before they view it, " Twitter said in its blog.

Twitter has classified the tweets under three under categories

—Misleading Information- This would include misleading posts or statements that are confirmed false by public health authorities and other experts.

—Disputed Claim- This would include the tweets that are not accurate or credible.

—Unverified Claim- This would include the information posted by Twitter users that cannot be verified or confirmed by any of the authorities in concern.

Twitter has said that the tweets falling under the Misleading and Disputed categories will be labeled first and then removed without warnings from the social media platform in sever cases.

"Serving the public conversation remains our overarching mission, and we'll keep working to build tools and offer context so that people can find credible and authentic information on Twitter," the blog said.