(CNN Business) Twitter said Monday it plans to put labels and warning messages on some tweets that contain disputed or misleading information related to Covid-19, even if it's tweeted by President Donald Trump.
Twitter TWTR announced in March that it would remove Covid-19 tweets that could cause a "direct risk to people's health or well-being." Starting Monday, it will use labels and warning messages "to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a Tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content."
Trump, possibly Twitter's most prolific user, will also be subject to the rules, according to Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of site integrity.
"These labels will apply to anyone sharing misleading information that meets the requirements of our policy, including world leaders," Roth wrote in a tweet Monday in response to a question about how the policy would apply to Trump and other elected officials.
At a White House briefing in April, Trump dangerously suggested ingesting disinfectants could help cure coronavirus. Trump has also promoted unproven drug therapies for the virus.
kaozennrk on May 12nd, 2020 at 01:34 UTC »
Who is the wise twitter person deciding what is misleading and what isn't? Is it a committee? Is it a rotating shift like tech support. Do they read every twat or do they wait for users to flag them? Will it be both left and right, authoritarian and libertarian?
IveKnownItAll on May 11st, 2020 at 23:22 UTC »
That's a great idea, in theory. But they still post misleading advertisements all the time. They let "news" outlets lead with click bait, and they would have to learn to monitor bias..
So who judges what's "misleading?"
zorbathegrate on May 11st, 2020 at 22:24 UTC »
I’ll believe it when I see it