Twitter To Start Labeling Misleading Tweets About COVID-19

Twitter is stepping up its efforts in tackling misleading tweets on its platform, especially the ones related to COVID-19. In a blog post, the company said it will start using labeling tweets on the subject it deems misleading.

The social media platform has also listed actions it will take based on the nature of the tweet itself. Depending on the severity of the misleading claim, a tweet could be labeled, or outright removed. This will be retroactively applied to tweets made before the implementation of this new policy as well.

For what it’s worth, unverified statements will be left alone, until Twitter comes up with a new label for it. But an important caveat to the system of note is that embedded tweets may still appear without a label. The same applies to those viewing a labelled tweet without logging in, which is a weird hiccup.

Odd limitations aside, this is a good expansion to what Twitter is already doing with its efforts to clean up harmful content. Back in March, the company removed over 2230 tweets it deemed misleading and potentially harmful. Last month also saw the social media platform actively removing tweets that encourage harmful actions.