(AbsoluteNews.com) – In August, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William Evanina, warned of interference in the US election by foreign actors. China, Russia and Iran were all named as possible meddlers. The countries are denying the allegations.
After the 2016 election, social media companies took a lot of heat for not stopping alleged interference by Russian trolls. Democrats claim it contributed to Hillary Clinton’s election loss. It seems that rhetoric stuck with Twitter.
Changes to Twitter
On September 10, Twitter announced it’s going to expand its policies to combat election misinformation. The company said it’s going to more aggressively fact-check. Going forward, the social media giant expects to hide tweets or add more labels on “false or misleading” information about the election or content that shares “unverified information about election rigging.”
In addition, the rules will extend to the period after the election and the company says it’s going to remove tweets that proclaim victory prematurely, bad information about the election results, or posts that’ll prevent a possible transition of power.
Twitter Isn’t the Only Company Making Changes
A week before Twitter’s announcement, Facebook said it will no longer allow new political ads to go up on the site in the week before the election. The company claims it will help combat misinformation. However, it’s a policy that doesn’t do much. All of the ads placed previously will remain. Also, it doesn’t stop users from sharing fake news.
Twitter has targeted President Donald Trump multiple times with labels. This new rule could lead to even more of that behavior by the company’s moderators. At a time when Congress is considering a bill to limit the liability protections social platforms enjoy … was this a great idea?
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