Twitter is looking to up its game to further limit the spread of harmful misinformation within its platform, via the implementation of a new policy that will specifically restrict the amplification of misinformation in times of crisis, including civil unrest, armed conflict, and more.
The policy has been developed in response to the Ukraine invasion, with Twitter now looking to dignify its Ukraine policies in its official guidelines. As Twitter explains:
“Around the world, people use Twitter to find reliable information in real-time. During periods of crisis – such as situations of armed conflict, public health emergencies, and large-scale natural disasters – access to credible, authoritative information and resources is all the more critical.”
Doing Away With The Harm
During such circumstances, Twitter will now work faster with potentially harmful claims behind a warning screen. Such claims also won’t be amplified in the Home timeline, Search, and Explore. Users will be required to click through the warning notice to view these Tweets, while Likes, ReTweets, and Shares will be disabled.
Going further, Twitter says that it’s also prioritizing adding warning notices to highly visible Tweets and Tweets from high profile accounts, ‘such as state-affiliated media accounts, verified official government accounts.’ The new policy will only relate to situations where there’s a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health, or basic subsistence. Twitter says that it will verify information via credible and publicly available sources, including evidence from various conflict monitoring groups, humanitarian NGOs, open-source investigators, and more.
This should at least appease ‘Free Speech’ advocates who already feel that social platforms base their decisions on political agendas. Elon certainly has his take on this as well. In principle, Twitter’s policies make perfect sense – harmful propaganda and misinformation can have damaging and lasting impacts and shouldn’t allow such to be amplified by its app. This is an issue that’s further ramped up during times of crisis.
Twitter says that under its new policy, the following new warning notices will be added:
False coverage or event reporting, or information that mischaracterizes conditions on the ground as a conflict evolves.
False allegations regarding use of force, incursions on territorial sovereignty, or around the use of weapons.
Demonstrably false or misleading allegations of war crimes or mass atrocities against specific populations.
False information regarding international community response, sanctions, defensive actions, or humanitarian operations.
The Wrap
It could prove to be a difficult policy to enforce, depending on the region and conflict. So, while it’s a rather good update, it may be seen as biased by those restricted as a result. It also seems like something prone to backfire at some point – the correct information is hidden due to the platform’s rapid action, however, such is often worth the risk if it means saving more lives.
Twitter states that this first iteration of its updated policy is aimed toward international armed conflicts, starting with the war in Ukraine, and eventually expanding to include additional forms of crises.
“The policy will supplement our existing work deployed during other global crises, such as in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and India.”
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