Twitter launched an initial test on new alert formats back in July. Now, Twitter is actually rolling out its improved labels meant to fight against misinformation, which seems to be a rising issue across several major social platforms.The improved labels come with variable messaging to help counter various kinds of potentially misleading elements within Tweets.
The new labels will be displayed with different messages and alert colors, providing more context and better explaining why Tweets have been flagged. It’s a good update on Twitter’s part, seeing as how other major platforms, Facebook and YouTube to be precise, are also exercising increased response towards helping lessen the spread of harmful and fallacious media and information within their channels.
Always Add Labels
Twitter supposedly released initial misinformation tags last year, in February. However, said tags were criticized for being too small and unclear (vague), leading to this now-improved format. The improved labels seek to inform users, where possible, about interacting with potentially misleading claims that might cause them to unintentionally violate certain guidelines.
Testing of the new format over these past few months has yielded positive results:
“In our tests, the new design increased the clickthrough rate on labels by 17%, from 3% to 3.5%. This number might sound low, but in many contexts, a 2% clickthrough rate is considered exceptionally good. The new label design also decreased shares by 10%, and decreased likes by 15%. Reducing sharing and engagement helps keep misleading content from propagating across Twitter.”
While Facebook is the one that took an arrow to the knee in terms of allegedly “facilitating” the spread of misinformation, Twitter is not faultless and, in some capacity, has also played a part, with certain reports even showcasing what harmful misinformation trends have originated from the platform.
However, much of these have been later attributed to bot activity. The 2016 US presidential elections, for example, revealed that Twitter unsuspectingly played host to “huge, inter-connected Twitter bot networks” that significantly influenced political discussions. The largest of these pseudo-networks consisted of around 500,000 fake accounts. An investigation conducted by Wired in 2019 revealed that bot profiles dominated political news streams, with bot accounts owning up to 60% of Tweet activity around certain major events. Earlier last year, another network of Twitter bots was discovered, this time they were spreading fake news about the Australian Bushfires, which only amplified anti climate-change conspiracies, further blurring established facts.
The Wrap
If a platform can take action to improve its ability to engage more audiences, then it must also take the necessary steps to ensure that its channels are up to par in neutralizing the spread of misinformation. Yes, Twitter might be ‘smaller’ compared to the likes of Facebook and friends, but it still holds significant sway in some niche channels, particularly with regards to news channels and specialty-fields. The key role that Twitter plays is actually being able to disperse information unto other platforms, thereby unwittingly amplifying the harmful effects of any fallacious content that manages to slip through.
Ending on a positive note, this is but one of many steps that Twitter has taken in order to address the growing concern of placating misinformation dissemination. Which stands to be an example, considering that Twitter is also currently doubling its efforts to expand engagement, while simultaneously fighting against the associated risks of such expansion. Bravo little Blue Bird.
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