In proactive move, Twitter aims to ‘pre-bunk’ US election falsehoods

Twitter has previously said it would remove tweets that encourage violence or call for people to interfere with election results or the operation of polling places. — AFP

WASHINGTON: Twitter said Oct 26 it would take the proactive step of alerting its users to potential misinformation in preparation for unverified claims about the Nov 3 US election.

The short messaging service said it would place notices at the top of user feeds warning that there may be delays in full election results and that people might see “misleading information” about voting by mail.

This “pre-bunking” is part of an effort to stay ahead of baseless claims about the election before they occur, according to Twitter’s head of site integrity Yoel Roth.

“We’re introducing ‘pre-bunks’ for some of the most common misleading claims about #Election2020,” Roth tweeted.

“Research shows that getting ahead of misinformation is a powerful way to build resilience. Excited to see this application of inoculation theory in practice.”

The move is the latest by online platforms aimed at stemming a wave of unverified claims during the campaign, including President Donald Trump’s efforts to call into question the legitimacy of mail-in ballots.

Twitter has previously said it would remove tweets that encourage violence or call for people to interfere with election results or the operation of polling places.

It has also said candidates for office may not claim an election win before it is “authoritatively called” and that premature claims would be labeled with a link to the platform’s election page. – AFP