“Twitter is experimenting with adding brightly colored labels directly beneath lies and misinformation posted by politicians and public figures,” reports Ben Collins at NBC News.
“Twitter tells me it’s a possible iteration of something that will roll out on March 5. Possible community moderation coming, too. We’ve got screenshots.”
From Ben’s NBC News reporting:
In this version, disinformation or misleading information posted by public figures will be corrected directly beneath the tweet by fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform, and possibly other users who will participate in a new “community reports” feature, which the demo claims is “like Wikipedia.”
“We’re exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it.”
The demo features bright red and orange badges for tweets that have been deemed “harmfully misleading,” in nearly the same size as the tweet itself and prominently displayed directly below the tweet that contains the harmful misinformation.
Examples of misinformation included a false tweet about whistleblowers by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a tweet about gun background checks by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and a tweet by an unverified Twitter account posting a doctored video of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
