Twitter will begin warning you a tweet is misleading even if you're just liking it
It may continue slowing down the spread of misinformation.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Twitter wants to slow the spread of misinformation.
Twitter is expanding its warnings for when you try to retweet a tweet labelled as being misleading. Now, even liking a labeled tweet will earn you a warning. According to the social media company, the prompts to read more info before retweeting has led to a 29% decrease in quoting misleading tweets.
"We're expanding them to show when you tap to like a labeled tweet," Twitter said Monday. "Giving context on why a labeled Tweet is misleading under our election, COVID-19 and synthetic and manipulated media rules is vital."
When you attempt to like a tweet that has been labelled by the social media company as being disputed, a message will pop up saying, "Help keep Twitter a place for reliable info." It will present a button for you to find out more about the topic before liking the tweet.
Twitter began labeling increasing numbers of tweets earlier this year amid hundreds of thousands of misleading pandemic- and election-related tweets -- some of which came from President Donald Trump.