Twitter is testing brightly colored flags for deceptive tweets from politicians

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Twitter is conducting a test that will see tweets from politicians with factually inaccurate information be labeled brightly, saying the tweet is “harmfully misleading.” This works through user moderation.

The feature labels a tweet as “harmfully misleading” if enough other Twitter users have marked the tweet as such through a points system, writes NBC News. Twitter has confirmed the existence of the test. The system also distinguishes between various Twitter users based on past moderations.

If a tweet gets an orange label saying it’s “harmfully misleading,” Twitter will restrict the tweet’s further distribution. The feature is one of the ways Twitter plans to keep misleading information off its platform. Twitter hints that there are more tests, but does not say what they entail.

Presumably, Twitter plans to roll out a new feature like this in the coming months, though that hasn’t been confirmed. The US presidential elections are in November and the purpose of this position is, among other things, to combat the spread of disinformation during elections.

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