(ETH) – Twitter is ready to tackle the spread of misinformation and disinformation on a whole new level by unveiling a feature similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially “misleading tweets’.
This new system called “Birdwatch” will allows users to discuss and provide context to tweets that they believe are misleading or false. The project is reportedly a standalone section of Twitter that will at first only be available to a small set of users, largely on a first-come, first-served basis according to NBC.
The report states that Priority will not be provided to high-profile people or traditional fact-checkers, and users will have to use an account that is tied to a real phone number and email address. “Birdwatch allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading or false, and write notes that provide informative context,” Twitter Vice President of Product Keith Coleman wrote in a press release.
“We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable.” This new feature will eventually make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors.”
NBC News states: “Birdwatch users are able to flag tweets from a dropdown menu directly within Twitter’s main interface, but discussion about a tweet’s veracity will remain exclusively in the Birdwatch section. Twitter says it does anticipate some users linking directly to Birdwatch discussions underneath high-profile and controversial tweets, just as some users would link out to fact-checking sites”.
