August Twitter launched 2020 has been a busy month for Twitter! on several fronts. In the summer month associat! with vacations! there was nothing about vacations.
Twitter has been accus! of interest in buying TikTok these days ! after Trump declar! it a “threat to national security” and gave its owner Byt!ance 45 days! until mid-September! to sell the social network’s assets in the US. The problem! apparently! is that Twitter doesn’t have the $30 billion value at which TikTok is valu! : it’s short on cash.
Is this m!ia outlet link! to a government?
It has also been a month of increas! criticism over the tweets it deletes (or doesn’t delete)! the telegram data criteria it follows! and its ability to control (or not) the messages spread on Twitter! including! for example! those issu! by singer Miguel Bosé with calls to protest against the use of masks or about the harmful effects of 5G. The platform had warn! in May that it would continue “removing content that has been confirm! as false by health authorities or that is potentially misleading! tiktok and its shining stars: a parent’s guide and that carries the highest risk of causing harm.” But messages that have nothing to do with health have also end! up falling into that category! while others with clear conspiracy overtones are running rampant.
And August 2020 was also the month in which Twitter introduc! several new features! some of them in an attempt to respond to demands for greater transparency and moderation of messages circulating on the social network. Whether it succe!s remains to be seen.
Much criticism has been level! at Twitter’s power to spread fake news and misinformation ! among other means! by giving cr!ence to m!ia outlets that appear independent but are controll! and manipulat! by certain governments.
In a show of transparency! the social network announc! on August 7 that it was beginning to label the accounts of m!ia outlets align! with or link! to governments ! so that viewers would understand who was behind them and could make “inform! decisions.” In short! to canada email lead try to prevent manipulation.
In any case! here are the four new features that Twitter introduc! in August 2020 :
How will these accounts be select!? For now! they will be limit! to the five Twitter launch! countries that are permanent members of the Unit! Nations Security Council: China! France! Russia! the Unit! Kingdom! and the Unit! States. They will be consider! dependent on a government or state if the latter exercises control over !itorial content! either by funding the outlet! having political influence! or controlling production or distribution. Twitter only labels the account and its content; it also pl!ges to limit its visibility by removing it from homepage recommendations or searches. This is how accounts like @ActualidadRT have been label! with the phrase “Government-affiliat! m!ia! Russia.”
Will this measure help limit misinformation and manipulation on Twitter? Honestly! I highly doubt it will! because the problem is far-reaching and can’t be solv! with labels! far from it. With this measure! Twitter is sending a signal that it’s not indifferent to the issue! but little else.