MASSACHUSETTS: The social media giant Twitter announced to introduce the option to report misleading tweets as part of its efforts to counter fake news.
The American microblogging platform said it is still trying to determine if it’s an effective approach while the company has picked a test group in limited countries that can use the new feature. The US, Australia, and South Korea are among the countries which will have an option to report a tweet as fake news or misleading before it will available to its almost 200 million users around the globe.
We're assessing if this is an effective approach so we’re starting small. We may not take action on and cannot respond to each report in the experiment, but your input will help us identify trends so that we can improve the speed and scale of our broader misinformation work.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 17, 2021
With the addition of a new feature, the San Francisco-based firm will flag the tweet as misinformation and have it reviewed by its moderators.
The move comes after Twitteratis, from different regions, were reportedly coming across misinformation content. Many even alarmed the Twitter officials about their experiences.
The recently tested tool is not the first of its kind as the company rolled out Birdwatch – which allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading and write notes that provide informative context. However, the comments are not directly shown in the tweet.
In the information age, Twitter and other social media giants are battling against fake news but it has been a real challenge with a number of factors.
Earlier this month, Twitter announced a joint venture with Associated Press and Reuters to provide authentic information on the social networking site. The company said it will collaborate with the newswires during breaking news events to add credible information about trending topics.
We’re excited to announce a new collaboration with @AP and @Reuters! Conversations move fast on Twitter and we need to be able to surface credible context just as quickly. Learn more about where you’ll see these updates: https://t.co/ptp5PWiFxq
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 2, 2021
