There’s a lot of coronavirus information floating around on the internet, much of it pretty useless, and some of it downright harmful. In an attempt to stop misinformation from making the rounds, Twitter has announced it is adding labels and warnings to tweets containing potentially misleading or disputed information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our goal is to make it easy to find credible information on Twitter and to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content,” head of site integrity Yoel Roth and public policy director Nick Pickles announced in a blog post.
The labels will provide links to more information from trusted external sources. Depending on the type and severity of misleading information, some tweets may also include a warning that the tweet conflicts with guidance from public health experts. In these cases, a tweet may be blocked entirely with a warning message before a user can view the original content. Misleading tweets with a severe potential for harm will be removed.
For the time being, Twitter’s new labels and warnings will be applied to tweets containing either misleading information or disputed claims. No action will be taken to flag unverified claims made on the platform at this time, though Twitter added that it will “continue to introduce new labels to provide context around different types of unverified claims and rumors as needed.”
The move marks the latest attempt by a social media platform to halt the spread of coronavirus misinformation. Back in April, YouTube announced it would be scrubbing the platform of misleading COVID-19 information, including phony “cures,” unsubstantiated medical advice and bizarre coronavirus conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Facebook began stepping up its efforts to curb coronavirus misinformation in March, claiming that the site would not allow harmful misinformation to circulate.
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