Twitter Launches ‘#Birdwatch’ Program To Fight MisInformation

Birdwatch
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Twitter is launching a new tool to fight misinformation on your timeline.

With the rise to fame, social media companies are preparing in various ways to fight misinformation. In the wake of the 2020 Presidential election, Twitter launched its “Birdwatch” program. Announced on Monday, January 25th, the program relies on its users to flag tweets as possibly inaccurate or misleading. Flagged tweets will feature a highlighted note as they were done recently in 2020. Twitter will also make notes on a separate part of their website.

If uses accumulate enough notes to make up a consensus, it will be enough to create an inquire. Its program will allow users to actively fact-check tweets.  To reduce conspiracy theories and possible tweets that can lead to more violence. 

Twitter says it has interviewed more than 100 people across the political spectrum, who told the company that the Birdwatch notes provided useful context to better understand the tweets. “Our goal is to build Birdwatch in the open, and have it shaped by the Twitter community,” Coleman wrote.

For now, users participating in the pilot can write notes on individual tweets, but the notes won’t be publicly visible on Twitter itself, only on the public Birdwatch website

 

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Image courtesy of Twitter
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