Twitter had announced new labels for tweets with misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines
Twitter had announced new labels for tweets with misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and a new strike system was introduced in order to warn users who created such content.
This, as Twitter had been implementing different features against fake news and misinformation, which include a new alert introduced during the United States elections for users who tried to like or share a misleading tweet.
According to Twitter, the labels would first be applied by a team that would determine whether a certain tweet violated the rules on COVID-19 content, which include vaccines.
Eventually, Twitter would use its automated review to check those tweets via machine learning technology.
If Twitter determined that a specific tweet had fake news or misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, Twitter would display a label with useful links from health authorities with reliable information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
The label would display as “This tweet is misleading. Find out why health officials consider COVID-19 vaccines safe for most people.“
Users won’t be able to share tweets labeled as “misleading” on the social network.
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There were five different categories of misinformation about COVID-19 on Twitter, according to 9to5Mac, which were the following: misinformation about the efficacy of treatments and preventive measures; misinformation about the nature of the virus; misinformation about the prevalence of the virus and the risk of infection or death; misinformation about regulations, restrictions, and exemptions in association with health advisories; and misleading affiliations
The said feature, according to 9to5Mac, was currently being rolled out for English-language content and would soon be expanded to other languages.
Twitter was also introducing a new strike system that would punish — or “educate,” as the company putted it — users who created and share misinformation content on the social network.
Facebook, as pointed out by The Verge, had also been applying similar rules for its social networks.
Twitter’s new labels can be seen on the Twitter website and in the official Twitter app.
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