What’s in a tag? Twitter revamps misinformation labels

This photo provided by Twitter shows a screen that show labels warning about misinformation. After its labels on election-related misinformation became a regular sighting in the weeks leading up to and following the 2020 US presidential election, Twitter is now working on overhauling them in an attempt to make them more useful and easier to notice, among other things. — Twitter via AP

Last May, as Twitter was testing warning labels for false and misleading tweets, it tried out the word “disputed” with a small focus group. It didn't go over well.

“People were like, well, who’s disputing it?” said Anita Butler, a San Francisco-based design director at Twitter who has been working on the labels since December 2019. The word “disputed”, it turns out, had the opposite effect of what Twitter intended, which was to “increase clarity and transparency”, she said.