Twitter has been taking content moderation very seriously for some time now. Recently, it brought several changes in its policies amidst the US Presidential Election 2020. The platform would add warning labels for any tweets that were either misleading about the voting system, or they were spreading misinformation about political parties and candidates. Even the posts that were indicative of premature election results were either being removed or were given a warning label. Now, the election is over, but Twitter seems to be working on expanding these warning labels and pop-up warnings for users when they try to Retweet or Like an already disputed tweet.
Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse engineer recently spotted these expansions and she reported that Twitter is trying out to warn people from liking a disputed tweet.
Twitter’s efforts to try adding more friction to control the sharing of misleading information have shown good results in the past too. The platform has been trying to make people more responsible while sharing posts with their followers.
A while ago, Twitter started showing pop-up warnings to users who would use some words in their tweets that would be violating the community guidelines. This message would appear in front of the user and it would prompt them to stop for a bit, re-read what they have typed before posting it on the platform.
Another thing that Twitter noticed sometime back was that people tend to share posts and articles without even opening the whole post and giving it a read first. So, a prompt from Twitter started appearing in front of the users before they Retweeted an article to stop for a bit, open the article, read it, and share it only when they find it relatable or authentic. According to surveys, more than 40% of people started opening articles before Retweeting after seeing this prompt. So, this encouraged Twitter that such prompt messages or pop-up warnings can actually help the users become better people online and curb the spread of misinformation on the way.
Before the recent US Election, Twitter removed the Retweet option altogether for American users. Instead, it started urging people to ‘Quote’ a tweet instead. This meant that the users were urged to express their thoughts and opinions about a tweet before retweeting it. This action also added some friction in the sharing process and helped in curbing misinformation to some extent.
When a tweet is Liked by a user, all their followers usually start seeing that tweet in their feeds too. So, putting some friction in Liking tweets will also help in controlling misinformation.
Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse engineer recently spotted these expansions and she reported that Twitter is trying out to warn people from liking a disputed tweet.
Twitter’s efforts to try adding more friction to control the sharing of misleading information have shown good results in the past too. The platform has been trying to make people more responsible while sharing posts with their followers.
A while ago, Twitter started showing pop-up warnings to users who would use some words in their tweets that would be violating the community guidelines. This message would appear in front of the user and it would prompt them to stop for a bit, re-read what they have typed before posting it on the platform.
Another thing that Twitter noticed sometime back was that people tend to share posts and articles without even opening the whole post and giving it a read first. So, a prompt from Twitter started appearing in front of the users before they Retweeted an article to stop for a bit, open the article, read it, and share it only when they find it relatable or authentic. According to surveys, more than 40% of people started opening articles before Retweeting after seeing this prompt. So, this encouraged Twitter that such prompt messages or pop-up warnings can actually help the users become better people online and curb the spread of misinformation on the way.
Before the recent US Election, Twitter removed the Retweet option altogether for American users. Instead, it started urging people to ‘Quote’ a tweet instead. This meant that the users were urged to express their thoughts and opinions about a tweet before retweeting it. This action also added some friction in the sharing process and helped in curbing misinformation to some extent.
When a tweet is Liked by a user, all their followers usually start seeing that tweet in their feeds too. So, putting some friction in Liking tweets will also help in controlling misinformation.
