Twitter announces changes to combat misinformation around voting

Twitter announced on Friday that it is making changes to its platform to help combat misinformation around Election Day and voting.

In a blog post, the social media site said it is adding new labels, warnings and prompts under tweets that falsely claim a candidate has won or tweets that incite violence or interfering with election results.

Additionally, the company will not allow users to ‘like’ or retweet posts from candidates if they have a misinformation or violation label attached.

The adjustments comes after users complained that fact-checking labels, often tied to tweets made by President Donald Trump, were not enough to counter false and misleading information ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

‘Twitter has a critical role to play in protecting the integrity of the election conversation, and we encourage candidates, campaigns, news outlets and voters to use Twitter respectfully and to recognize our collective responsibility to the electorate to guarantee a safe, fair and legitimate democratic process this November.’ the blog post reads.

‘As with any other product change, we will learn, observe, and iterate based on the impact of these changes, to inform both our strategy around future global elections and Twitter’s overall product experience

Since 2018, Twitter has already introduced several measures to protect the integrity of elections and combat misleading information.

This includes banning all political ads, adding Election Labels to candidates’ accounts, and labeling doctored photos or video as ‘manipulated media.’

It also added labels and warnings to potentially harmful misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic and mail-in voting.

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Sexy onions

Facebook blocked an advertisement for onion seeds for being ‘overtly sexual’. The Seed Company, based in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, posted an ad for Walla Walla onion seeds on Facebook last month

Facebook blocked the ad with a message stating products could not be positioned in an ‘overtly sexual manner’

However, on September 25, the social media platform suddenly pulled the ad, allegedly for its sexual suggestiveness.

‘Listings may not position products or services in an overtly sexual manner,’ a notice to the seed and garden supply business read.

The post, which advertised onion seeds for $1.99 CAD reads: ‘An extremely sweet, mild and large onion that is easy to grow from seed. ‘Its large size and excellent flavour make it ideal for slicing, salads, frying, baking, onion rings, and sauces.’

McLean took to the company’s Facebook account on Saturday to post about the bizarre situation.

‘Just got notified by Facebook that the photo used for our Walla Walla Onion seed is “Overtly Sexual”.Can you see it?’ he wrote, along with a laughing emoji.

McLean asked for the social media platform to review the ban, but he did not hear any response.

However, after he went to the Canadian national media with the story, Facebook reversed the decision.

Meg Sinclair, head of communications for Facebook Canada, told The Canadian Press the mistake was due to an algorithm mix-up.

‘We use automated technology to keep nudity off our apps, but sometimes it doesn’t know a Walla Walla onion from a, well, you know,’ she said.

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