Twitter Takes Additional Steps To Prevent Interference In US Election

(RTTNews) - Twitter has taken additional steps to prevent any manipulation or interference in the upcoming U.S. Elections or other civic processes through misleading Tweets. It announced significant product and enforcement updates to enable the smooth conduct of the democratic process.

The social media platform has recently expanded its civic integrity policy to address how they will handle misleading information surrounding these events. They announced more labels and restrictions to slow the spread of misinformation.

Under this policy, Twitter said it will "label Tweets that falsely claim a win for any candidate and will remove Tweets that encourage violence or call for people to interfere with election results or the smooth operation of polling places."

Twitter added that it may label Tweets that violate its policies against misleading information about civic integrity, COVID-19, and synthetic and manipulated media. It may also prompt people to read credible information before attempting to Retweet one of these Tweets with a misleading information label.

The microblogging site will also now add additional warnings and restrictions on Tweets with a misleading information label from US political figures (including candidates and campaign accounts), US-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers, or that obtain significant engagement.

On Sunday, Twitter flagged US President Donald Trump's tweet on being immune from COVID-19, saying the Tweet violated rules on spreading misleading information regarding COVID-19. Commenting and sharing options have also been disabled.

Last week, Twitter had said it was working on a new feature, named "Birdwatch," which could warn Twitter users about misleading tweets. The move came amid the chaos created by tweets that were shared wishing or hoping for the death of U.S. President Donald Trump after he was tested COVID-19 positive.

Birdwatch, the new feature likely to root out misinformation, is expected to appear as a tab in each tweet's drop-down menu, which will allow users to attach a note to a misleading tweet.

Facebook said earlier in the month that it would ban ads that seek to delegitimize the Presidential election between October 27 and November 3. The announcement is in line with the social media giant's decision to prohibit ads that make premature declarations of victory as it aims to protect the integrity of the upcoming US Elections.

In early September, Facebook also decided not to accept any new political ads in the week before the election, as well as remove posts which claim that people will get COVID-19 if they take part in voting.