On friday,Twitter took the major steps to slow down the way information flows on its network, even changing some of its basic features, Due to the presidential elections the false news will easily spread which might lead to violence among the people.
The changes is just for temporary. The company will basically give users a timeout, for example, before they can hit the button to retweet a post from another account. And if users try to share content that Twitter has flagged as false, a notice will warn them that they are about to share inaccurate information.
Twitter also said it that as soon as the results would be out they would add a label to claims about who won the election until it has been called by authoritative sources.
The steps which was announced on Friday are one of a most dramatic actions made by the social media in the recent months to stop the flow of false information until the presidential election in US.
The companies are going to considerable lengths to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election, when Russian disinformation flowed were unchecked on Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube, which is owned by Google. Facebook and Google have committed to banning political ads for an undetermined period after polls close on Nov. 3. Facebook also said a banner at the top of its news feed would caution users that no winner had been declared until news outlets called the presidential race.
In this election, much of the false news on the platforms has come from domestic sources and, in some cases, elected officials. That has forced the companies to walk a careful line between stopping false narratives because they go viral and have a real-world impact while countering arguments that they have become self-appointed censors.
“Twitter has a critical role to play in protecting the integrity of the election conversation, and we encourage candidates, campaigns, news outlets and voters to use Twitter respectfully and to recognize our collective responsibility to the electorate to guarantee a safe, fair and legitimate democratic process this November,” the Twitter executives Vijaya Gadde and Kayvon Beykpour said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Twitter has already added warning labels to lies posted by elected officials — flagging several of Mr. Trump’s tweets — and has cracked down on photos and videos that had been manipulated to deceive viewers. The company has not accepted political advertising for nearly a year.
Most of the latest changes will start from Oct. 20 and will be temporary, Twitter said. Labels warning users against sharing false information will begin to appear next week. The company plans to wait until the result of the presidential election is clear before turning the features back on
