Starting Thursday, the platform will no longer automatically
recommend or emphasise posts that make misleading claims about the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, including material that mischaracterises conditions in
conflict zones or makes false allegations of war crimes or atrocities against
civilians.
Under its new “crisis misinformation policy," Twitter
will also add warning labels to debunked claims about ongoing humanitarian
crises, the San Francisco-based company said. Users won't be able to like,
forward or respond to posts that violate the new rules.
The changes make Twitter the latest social platform to
grapple with the misinformation, propaganda, and rumors that have proliferated
since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. That misinformation ranges from
rumors spread by well-intentioned users to Kremlin propaganda amplified by
Russian diplomats or fake accounts and networks linked to Russian intelligence.
“We have seen both sides share information that may be
misleading and/or deceptive,” said Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and
integrity, who detailed the new policy for reporters. “Our policy doesn't draw
a distinction between the different combatants. Instead, we're focusing on
misinformation that could be dangerous, regardless of where it comes from.”
The new policy will complement existing Twitter rules that
prohibit digitally manipulated media, false claims about elections and voting,
and health misinformation, including debunked claims about COVID-19 and
vaccines.
But it could also clash with the views of Tesla billionaire
Elon Musk, who has agreed to pay $44 billion to acquire Twitter with the aim of
making it a haven for “free speech.”
Musk hasn't addressed many instances of what that would mean
in practice, although he has said that Twitter should only take down posts that
violate the law, which taken literally would prevent action against most
misinformation, personal attacks and harassment. He has also criticised the
algorithms used by Twitter and other social platforms to recommend particular
posts to individuals.
The policy was written broadly to cover misinformation
during other conflicts, natural disasters, humanitarian crises or “any
situation where there's a widespread threat to health and safety,” Roth said.
Twitter said it will rely on a variety of credible sources
to determine when a post is misleading. Those sources will include humanitarian
groups, conflict monitors and journalists.
A senior Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Victor Zhora,
welcomed Twitter's new screening policy and said that it's up to the global
community to “find proper approaches to prevent the sowing of misinformation
across social networks.”
While the results have been mixed, Twitter's efforts to
address misinformation about the Ukraine conflict exceed those of other
platforms that have chosen a more hands-off approach, like Telegram, which is
popular in Eastern Europe.
Asked specifically about the Telegram platform, where
Russian government disinformation is rampant but Ukraine's leaders also reaches
a wide audience, Zhora said the question was “tricky but very important.”
That's because the kind of misinformation disseminated without constraint on
Telegram “to some extent led to this war.”
Since the Russian invasion began in February, social media
platforms like Twitter and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, have
tried to address a rise in war-related misinformation by labeling posts from
Russian state-controlled media and diplomats. They've also de-emphasised some material
so it no longer turns up in searches or automatic recommendations.
Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's
Digital Forensic Research Lab and expert on social media and disinformation,
said that the conflict in Ukraine shows how easily misinformation can spread
online during conflict, and the need for platforms to respond.
“This is a conflict that has played out on the Internet, and
one that has driven extraordinarily rapid changes in tech policy,” he said.
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