Social media giant Twitter on Wednesday made an announcement that they will start to label, moderate and may even remove some tweets which are heavily inclined on spreading wrong information about the different COVID-19 vaccines which are now being given and distributed on some parts of the world.
This move by Twitter may be somehow compared to the actions which were done earlier by fellow social media platforms Facebook and YouTube. With Twitter being a tool for providing information and spreading news all throughout the internet on a global scale, it has also a seen a surge of 'fake news' or misinformation wherein false claims have surfaced on the platform itself done by its users as well.
Twitter's Plan of Action Against Misinformation
The company mentioned that it will perform such actions on a wide variety of false information being rampant on the news feed or timeline of most users of the app and the social media itself. They will begin their focus on tweets that show claims which are implying that the vaccines as well as its integrated immunizations over the disease are somehow being utilized in order to control populations.
They will also implement actions regarding tweets which claim that the COVID-19 virus is not real and was just invented for the sake of business. A lot of tweets are seen that expresses sentiments of some people where they truly believe that there is no virus at all. Those tweets have drawn various reactions and comments for other Twitter users in which mostly are taking against it, yet some were fond of those tweets and even supported and justified those.
ALSO READ: Microsoft Authenticator Equipped with New Password Manager
These are just some of the examples of what Twitter considers to be misinformation, in which mostly were just primarily based on deliberate conspiracy. Tweets that would be proven and determined to adhere on such issues would be moderated and warned by the company's system, which could potentially lead on deleting those permanently.
Labeling Tweets
Aside from their immediate plan of action and implementation regarding misinformation, they would also be issuing labels and warnings on various tweets which could somewhat imply and suggest unsubstantiated claims and rumors, as well as unnecessary and out of the context information pertaining to the vaccines, its effects, distribution process and usage as well.
It would begin as early as 2021 according to reports and would provide access for users to be directed on to legit and authoritative public health information inside and outside the app itself.
This is one of the company's few moves after the appointment of their new head of security last month. World renowned master hacker Peiter Zatko, also known with his hacker moniker "Mudge" began overseeing the company's security operations after he was named the head of security of Twitter. In an interview after the announcement of his new position in the company, he mentioned that he is fond of Twitter's creativity when it comes to security and data privacy, which he would love to work on.
ALSO READ: Twitter Assigns Master Hacker Mudge to Take Over as Head of Security for Innovation
