Twitter Announces Plan to Combat Political Candidates Who Claim ‘Premature’ Victory
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Twitter has announced it will take measures to prevent political candidates from making “premature” victory announcements.
“Tweets which include premature claims of a victory in an election will be labeled and direct people to our official U.S. Election page,” the platform said in a Friday announcement. “Tweets that encourage others to interfere with the election process or the results will be removed.”
The company said it would put a special emphasis on targeting popular users and messages, writing, “To continue to address the risk of misinformation, we’ll add warnings and further restrictions on Tweets with misleading information labels from accounts owned by US political figures, US-based accounts with 100,000+ followers, or Tweets that obtain significant engagement. Starting next week, when people attempt to Retweet a Tweet with a misleading information label, they will see a prompt directing them to credible information about the topic before they can amplify it.”
Twitter added that it would “temporarily ask people to add their own commentary before amplifying content” from other users. “We hope this encourages everyone to consider why they are amplifying a Tweet, and brings more thoughts, reactions & perspectives to the conversation.”
The company has been under fire from conservatives since May, when it began “labeling” tweets from President Donald Trump as “violent” or “misleading.” Trump signed an executive order that month asking the Federal Communications Commission to review special liability protections that tech companies including Twitter receive. The commission has yet to take public action.
The most recent incident occurred in September, when the president encouraged voters in North Carolina to find out whether election officials were following the proper procedure for mail-in ballots. “NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY,” Trump wrote. “When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!”
Facebook and Twitter both appended warning labels to the message. “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity,” the label on Twitter advised. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The president wrote on Twitter days later that the platform was “being studied” for bias. He did not reference the action taken by Facebook.
