Social media may be a powerful tool that permits ordinary people to hide news that mainstream outlets might not easily tackle. A bit like the other tool, however, they are often used for both good and bad, the latter by spreading misinformation faster than actual, confirmed facts. Different platforms have alternative ways of handling this type of behavior, whether intentional or otherwise. Twitter is now giving its users a touch of that power to report posts that they could concede to be misleading instead of informative.
On a technical level, this new feature tested in some territories is an expansion of Twitter’s existing reporting system. It adds a replacement “It’s misleading” option to spam or harmful content when reporting a tweet. Twitter will also ask the reporter whether the subject is Politics, Health, or something else.
Twitter says it’s still an experiment and that they won’t even take action on each report. Instead, the system is designed to let Twitter know more quickly if there are trends that are producing misinformation so that it can react faster. It is, in other words, putting both the facility and, therefore, the responsibility on users to police the network.
We’re testing a feature for you to report Tweets that seem misleading – as you see them. Starting today, some people in the US, South Korea, and Australia will find the option to flag a Tweet as “It’s misleading” after clicking on Report Tweet.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 17, 2021
One problem which may arise with this feature is that Twitter doesn’t precisely have complex rules on what it might consider misleading information. Because the past year or two have proven, each side of an argument can accuse the opposite of spreading misinformation. Within the end, Twitter will be the judge of what’s considered misleading and what isn’t, with users simply providing metrics on rapidly growing trends.
Of course, not everyone will accept as accurate with Twitter‘s rules anyway, which makes matters even vaguer. the power to report misleading tweets is out there for a few people within the US, Australia, and South Korea. Still, it remains to be seen how long that experiment will last or if it’ll even become a typical Twitter feature.
