Users of Twitter are being asked to help out the company to fight fake news.
A pilot project has been announced by the social media company that will allow the users of the micro blogging site to make and submit notes on tweets that they believe could be completely be false or misleading.
Initially, a small group in the United States is using the new service as a trial case launched by the company. The feature is called 'Birdwatch'. The new feature and the systems backing it need to be "resistant to manipulation attempts", the company however also acknowledged.
Persistent efforts are being made to see how it can be possible for them to better moderate their platforms by social media companies like Twitter.
"We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying,” Twitter said on Monday.
Dealing with disinformation and fake news on its platform has been a struggle for Twitter, along with other large social media companies.
Under the new pilot project, Twitter users will be allowed to raise the red flag for tweets that it believe to be "misleading or false", while also providing evidence to the contrary and discuss them with other - on a separate 'Birdwatch' site.
Additional notes and flags would then be placed on to content.
It would be possible to quickly take action any misleading information that spreads on the platform using the new approach, Twitter says.
"Eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors," Twitter said.
Some form of misleading information is already flagged by Twitter. The company had labeled as fake and misleading many of former United States president Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud, for example,
The right to remove tweets as well as to ban users under extreme and extraordinary circumstances is reserved with Twitter. That was done by the company with the US president after the riots in Washington earlier this month.
Twitter, though, wants to go further.
"We don't want to limit efforts to circumstances where something breaks our rules or receives widespread public attention," said Twitter's Vice-President Keith Coleman.
In a bid to keep bots and bad actors away, Twitter said that participants will have to provide a verified phone number and email to take part. Additionally, the users will also need to clarify about not having any recent rule violations against their Twitter account.
President Biden said in his inauguration speech that: "We must reject a culture where facts are manipulated, or even manufactured."
(source:www.bbc.com)
A pilot project has been announced by the social media company that will allow the users of the micro blogging site to make and submit notes on tweets that they believe could be completely be false or misleading.
Initially, a small group in the United States is using the new service as a trial case launched by the company. The feature is called 'Birdwatch'. The new feature and the systems backing it need to be "resistant to manipulation attempts", the company however also acknowledged.
Persistent efforts are being made to see how it can be possible for them to better moderate their platforms by social media companies like Twitter.
"We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying,” Twitter said on Monday.
Dealing with disinformation and fake news on its platform has been a struggle for Twitter, along with other large social media companies.
Under the new pilot project, Twitter users will be allowed to raise the red flag for tweets that it believe to be "misleading or false", while also providing evidence to the contrary and discuss them with other - on a separate 'Birdwatch' site.
Additional notes and flags would then be placed on to content.
It would be possible to quickly take action any misleading information that spreads on the platform using the new approach, Twitter says.
"Eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors," Twitter said.
Some form of misleading information is already flagged by Twitter. The company had labeled as fake and misleading many of former United States president Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud, for example,
The right to remove tweets as well as to ban users under extreme and extraordinary circumstances is reserved with Twitter. That was done by the company with the US president after the riots in Washington earlier this month.
Twitter, though, wants to go further.
"We don't want to limit efforts to circumstances where something breaks our rules or receives widespread public attention," said Twitter's Vice-President Keith Coleman.
In a bid to keep bots and bad actors away, Twitter said that participants will have to provide a verified phone number and email to take part. Additionally, the users will also need to clarify about not having any recent rule violations against their Twitter account.
President Biden said in his inauguration speech that: "We must reject a culture where facts are manipulated, or even manufactured."
(source:www.bbc.com)
