Twitter’s new policy to hide tweets with false information during crisis

San Francisco: Microblogging site Twitter has announced that it is introducing a crisis misinformation policy that will help hide tweets that share false information during a crisis.

The company said that during periods of crisis access to credible, authoritative information and services is even more important.

“We are introducing our crisis misinformation policy — a global policy that will guide our efforts to elevate credible, authoritative information, and will help to ensure viral misinformation isn’t amplified or recommended by us during crises,” the company said in a blogpost.

“Alongside our existing work to make reliable information more accessible during crisis events, this new approach will help to slow the spread by us of the most visible, misleading content, particularly that which could lead to severe harms,” it added.

The platform mentioned that, to determine whether claims are misleading, it requires verification from multiple credible, publicly available sources.

“Conversation moves quickly during periods of crisis, and content from accounts with wide reach are most likely to rack up views and engagement,” the company said.

“To reduce potential harm, as soon as we have evidence that a claim may be misleading, we will not amplify or recommend content that is covered by this policy across Twitter – including in the Home timeline, Search, and Explore,” it added.

In addition, Twitter said it will prioritise adding warning notices to highly visible Tweets and Tweets from high-profile accounts, such as state-affiliated media accounts, and verified official government accounts.