US election: Twitter tightens rules on retweets and victory claims

Twitter has said it will not allow any of its users – including candidates – to claim victory prematurely in america that is forthcoming election.

It said any tweets triumph that is claiming a definite projection would have a warning label added.

The move follows a similar choice from Facebook month that is last.

Twitter will also temporarily change the method retweets work – prompting users to “quote tweet” and include their very own ideas before distributing an email.

If users do not add such a thing, it will appear as a retweet that is normal.

“Though this adds some friction that is additional those who simply want to retweet, we hope it’ll encourage everyone to not only consider why they have been amplifying a tweet, but also increase the likelihood that individuals add their own thoughts, reactions and views to the conversation,” the company said.

That change is planned to happen on 20 October, “until at least the end of election week”.

Disputed results

Along with its ban on “premature” claims of victory, Twitter said it would also eliminate any tweets that incited disturbance with election outcomes, “such as through violent action”.

“Under this policy, we will label Tweets that falsely claim a victory for any candidate and will remove Tweets that encourage violence or call for people to affect election results or the procedure that is smooth of places,” the company said in a blog post.

Twitter gave election results as an exemplory instance of one area included in its new policies that are civic which were updated in September. But Friday’s post sets a club that is high what will be allowed.

The benchmark for when Twitter users can claim a result will be either an statement from state election officials or the projection of two “authoritative”, independent news that is national.

Tweets that falsely claim a win will not merely be labelled but users being also direct the platform’s official US election page.

Both Twitter and Facebook are under intense scrutiny in the run-up to the election, and have announced revised policies to deal with misinformation on their platforms.

However in the wake of the pandemic, many others postal ballots have been cast than is usual, which usually takes much longer to count – leading to a much longer gap than usual between the close of polls and outcomes that are formal.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has publicly addressed the problem, writing: “With our nation so divided and election outcomes days being potentially taking consistent weeks to be finalised, there may be an increased danger of civil unrest around the world.”

As well as warning users over results, Twitter announced a handful of additional measures that are election-related Friday.

Tweets that have had warning labels added in their mind will now see a pop-up prompt with a prominent url to “credible” details about this issue if they attempt to re-tweet them.

Tweets from major reports – such as US politicians or accounts which are US-based more than 100,000 followers – also just have the option to “quote tweet” on labelled tweets. Additionally the community that is social it mightn’t suggest such tweets to new people through its algorithms.

It also stated it could halt recommendations from strangers in timelines, and restrict recommended styles for people users to topics that include “additional context” – a article or description that explains the trend.