Social media giant Twitter on Thursday unveiled a series of changes it will make to the platform ahead of the 2022 midterm elections in the United States in hopes of protecting “civic conversation,” the company said. announced in a statement.
Since 2018, the company has used its Civic Integrity Policy to help curb the spread of misinformation about elections in countries around the world. This year’s policy includes some familiar guidelines — like “prebunks,” or prompts on Twitter’s home screen to help users find accurate information about relevant topics — while others will be updated, like the company’s new way to prevent further spread of fraudulent tweets.
Earlier this year, Twitter tested improved recommendation settings so that misinformation tweets don’t get boosted through notifications. The company said the research led to a monthly drop of 1.6 million impressions in tweets containing false information.
“We have since applied this intervention to notification recommendations on Twitter and are exploring opportunities for other surfaces on Twitter,” the company wrote in part.
Another update, which was tested by the company last year, put labels on fraudulent tweets, which led to a 17% increase in clicks from people looking for accurate information.
While primaries have taken place across the country, Twitter has also created regional hubs for state-specific elections, offering users a one-stop shop to find information about candidates, voting rules and news from local journalists.
While the changes are mounting, Twitter has faced increased scrutiny after the 2020 presidential election to curb misinformation — especially after a former employee of the company testified before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Hill, telling lawmakers about the social media site’s failure to take action after then-President Donald Trump continued to tweet lies about the election results.
The individual told the committee of their “desperate efforts to get Twitter to do something” about Donald Trump’s rhetoric early on Jan. 6, according to the report. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., who said the anonymous individual was employed by the social network. media site platform and content moderation team from 2020 to 2021.
“On the night of January 5th, I believe I texted someone that said something along the lines of, ‘when people shoot each other tomorrow, I’m going to try and rest in the knowledge that we tried,'” the individual, identified as which. has been hidden for their safety, he told the commission in recorded testimony.
“I don’t know that I slept that night, to be honest with you. I was on pins and needles because again for months I had been praying, predicting and trying to face the reality that if nothing, if we didn’t intervene and from what I saw happening people would die,” said the worker. “And on January 5, I realized that no intervention was coming.
“Even though I tried to create one or enforce one, there was nothing and we were at the whims and mercy of a violent mob that was locked and loaded,” the employee added.
Then-President Donald Trump tweeted nearly two dozen times the day before the uprising, often praising Republicans who supported his efforts to overturn the election or encouraging Vice President Mike Pence to do so unilaterally.
The site later permanently suspended Trump from Twitter “due to the risk of further inciting violence.”
But it’s unclear how the social media platform is handling incumbent candidates who say the election was stolen, a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. Twitter’s civic integrity policy covers “false information about the outcome of the election” and says that tweets with this content “may be tagged with links to reliable information or useful context, and Twitter will not recommend or amplify this content in product areas where Twitter makes recommendations.”
In three swing states, three candidates for secretary of state are falsely running around 2020. All are backed by Trump.
One is Arizona’s Mark Finchem, who spoke to voters the day before the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, saying, “When something is stolen, that’s not really a victory. This is a scam.”
Finchem doubled down on those statements during his campaign for secretary of state — and now, more than 18 months later, says Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona should be certified.
Last week, Finchem won the state’s Republican primary race for the office.
Then there’s Kari Lake, an Arizona gubernatorial candidate who similarly won the GOP primary in her race, who recently called Joe Biden an “illegitimate president.”
Neither the tweet from Finchem nor Lake was reported by Twitter as containing misinformation. Spectrum News has reached out to Twitter for clarification on their policies.
