Twitter Launches Warnings Over US Election Misinformation, Delays
The warnings will be in banners that will be pinned to the top of users’ Twitter timelines in the US.
Twitter on Monday, 26 October, announced that it is adding a banner on top of users’ feeds intended at pre-emptively debunking false information about voting by mail and election results.
The warnings in banners that will be pinned to the top of Twitter timelines will state that the election results could be delayed and that they may encounter misinformation regarding mail-in voting.
The move from the micro-blogging platform to counter misinformation comes ahead of the 3 November US presidential elections.
Twitter is calling the messages a “pre-bunk,” since the debunking is not a reaction to any existing misinformation-laden tweet, NBC News reported.
Axios quoted a press statement by Twitter, saying that both the prompts "will link to Twitter Moments that provide more context and compile the latest credible information on the topic from election experts, journalists and other authoritative news sources.”
According to reports, the banners will be shown to all users in the US and when people search for terms, phrases or hashtags related to the US election or mail-in ballots.
“These prompts will alert people that they may encounter misinformation, and provide them with credible, factual information on the subject,” Twitter said, according to NBC News.
(With inputs from Axios and NBC News.)
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