Twitter has announced that it will be using two external news agencies to help improve the effectiveness of the context added to the top trends on its platform. As a Twitter user, it made me wonder if adding more context to Twitter will improve the quality of debate?
I think It is going to depend on how quickly the contextual information can be added to the conversation. If it happens quickly enough it could stop the misinformation from being spread.
Twitter and misinformation
Twitter is just like have other social media sites has problems with its platform being used to spread misinformation. Some of this misinformation can be dangerous such as some of the misinformation being spread about Covid and the Covid-19 vaccine.
Twitter does have a curation team that looks to provide context in the following ways.
- Trends. Contextual information added to top trends on Twitter.
- The twitter explore tab
- Search. Certain sensitive keywords will automatically show content from trusted moments containing context and functial information
- Pormpts. During certain sensitive events like an election. public server annoucenments will be displayed in the user timeline and in the explorer tab
- Labels. Contained within an individual tweet that is either sensitive or hold misinformation
Twitter changes due to the collaboration with news agencies
As I stated in the introduction to this article. Twitter has announced a partnership with two news agencies Associated Press and Reuters. Twitter hope that this partnership will offer the following improvements around the context of a story for its users.
- Inproved context sharing. Make credible information available in real time and over an increased range of subjects.
- Anticipating emerging topics and provide topic context before any misinformation can be spread.
Initially, Associated Press and Reuters will be focusing on English language content.
Why do these changes matter to Twitter users
In this section, I’m going to state my opinion based on my personal experiences of using Twitter.
Twitter-like many other social media platforms make it easy for many millions to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences. Which can stimulate debate and discussions on popular topics. This is good for democracy.
The very technology that makes it easy for us all to share our own thoughts and knowledge can be misused either intentionally or unintentionally to spread misinformation. A trend that weakens our democracy.
For me the question is. How can we battle the misinformation while still allowing the Twitter community to continue to share our thoughts? The answer provided by Twitter appears to add some context to the story which, will not give misinformation the space to breathe.
If Twitter with this new partnership can get the contextual information into a discussion quick enough before those with an agenda can start to spread misinformation. It could well work reducing the amount of misinformation being spread on Twitter. Which can only improve the quality of debate.
Conclusion
As you can see I welcome this change. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will work out in practice. I would love to know what you think?
Why don’t you join the discussion on Twitter by sharing this page?