Twitter Relives Features That Promote Accurate Information About US Elections

Twitter revives accurate information feature. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc will revive features on its social media site to promote accurate information about the US midterm elections in November and suppress false and misleading posts. This was explained by the micro blogging media in a blog post on Thursday, August 11.

Civil rights and online misinformation experts have accused social media and technology platforms of not doing enough to prevent the spread of misinformation, including the idea that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.

Twitter will implement its civil integrity policy, introduced in 2018, at midterm on November 8 when all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are at stake and about a third of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate.

The policy prohibits users from posting misleading content intended to deter people from voting and claims intended to undermine public confidence in elections, including false information about election results.

Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump's account from the service last year, citing the risk of "further incitement to violence" days after then-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The San Francisco-based company, which has sued billionaire Elon Musk to close a $44 billion deal to acquire the company, said it was conducting tests to prevent misleading tweets that were recommended to other users via notifications.

"Tests resulted in 1.6 million fewer views of misleading information per month," Twitter said.

Efforts to combat misinformation, such as that which occurred during the 2020 US presidential election, include information being asked on users' timelines to "unpack," i.e. to dispel lies before they spread further online.