It has been known that Twitter moderates certain tweets that are deemed hateful, hence these tweets will have limited visibility. However, users would not know if a tweet has been limited. For the sake of transparency, the social media company will start putting labels on tweets that violated the Hateful Conduct policy, which should explain why Twitter capped their reach on the online platform.
Twitter to Limit Reach of Tweets Labeled as 'Hateful,' But Will Remain Available
Twitter issued a new rule that introduces the social media platform's new stance in dealing with hateful content. If it was found that a tweet violated Twitter's Hate Conduct policy, it will get a label that shows why it was considered as hate speech, as reported by Engadget.
The online platform has recently applied "visibility filtering" on problematic tweets, which should make it hard for Twitter users to discover them, according to Tech Crunch. They will be excluded from the search results, trending tweets, recommended tweets, as well as the For You and Following feeds. The only way to see these tweets is to visit the profile of the user who tweeted them.
Furthermore, "hateful" tweets will also be downranked in replies, and they will lose the opportunity to run with ads. With Twitter now labelling tweets that violated the Hateful Conduct policy, there will be no reason for other users to think that they have been "shadowbanned" for no reason.
It should be noted that once Twitter labels a tweet, it doesn't mean that the user's account will be removed from the platform. Only the labelled tweets will have limited reach, but the user's other tweets will have normal visibility.
Twitter will also give users a chance to remove the label on their tweets by allowing them to leave feedback. Users can explain why they believe Twitter's decision to label their tweets as hate speech might be an "error," although they should expect that the decision to remove the label will take some time.
For now, not all tweets with limited visibility will have labels. Twitter has only applied this new rule for the limited tweets that violate the Hateful Conduct policy. Other reasons why a tweet has limited reach will get their respective labels in the coming months.
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Twitter's Latest Move Further Strengthens Musk's 'Freedom of Speech' Stance
As per Engadget, the new Twitter policy enforces its current CEO Elon Musk's stance of defending the freedom of speech on the platform. Musk has been vocal against the banning of personalities like Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Twitter due to their controversial tweets.
Instead of banning accounts, the new Twitter under Musk started to limit the visibility of problematic tweets. This way, the social media platform is able to protect the user's right to free speech by keeping their accounts and tweets online. Unfortunately, some users complain about being shadowbanned without their knowledge, which stirs a debate on whether only selected individuals who have not posted anything hateful have limited reach.
Twitter also faces criticisms on how it moderates online content, as hate speech remains on the social media platform, particularly those that are directed against the LGBTQ community. This is the same reason why some advertisers have become concerned about their ads running with hateful content on Twitter.
