Republican lawmakers are raising questions about Twitter’s new body of information against misinformation, called “Birdwatch,” which allows users to add annotations to tweets that they believe are false, in an attempt to share context with other users add.
On Birdwatch, no account and no tweet has been released from notes, meaning users can ‘add context’ to tweets posted by newspapers, reporters and elected officials.
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Birdwatch enables users to identify information in tweets that they believe is misleading or untrue and to take notes or notes to the tweets in a way that provides them with an ‘informative context’.
Participants will be able to quote source material in their notes, also from news pages – meaning users can annotate the tweets from one news store by naming tweets from other news pages.
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was a leading vote in the Senate on the issue of Big Tech and freedom of speech, hacked Twitter.
‘Empowering self-proclaimed’ fact checkers’ and left-wing Silicon Valley billionaires to determine what is’ misleading ‘only confirms what the American people already know to be true: Big Tech points out that it is the sole arbitrator of the truth and use force to silence disagreements, ”Cruz told Fox News.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Said Twitter users currently have the ability to control others: “I thought that’s what people have been doing on Twitter.”
“I am all for freedom of speech and expression,” Johnson said. “I just wish Twitter was.”
James Comer, R-Ky, member of the House oversight committee’s rankings, has raised questions about whether Birdwatch can further silence conservatives and ultimately make a ‘suffocating freedom of speech’.
“Twitter has long acted unilaterally to decide what content is valid and not valid and factual,” Comer told Fox News. “The only time will be whether Birdwatch succeeds in making a positive impact on a platform known for silencing conservatives, or that this community-driven effort will ultimately stifle freedom of speech as Twitter has done in the recent past. . “
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After Twitter unveiled Birdwatch on Monday, a number of Republicans from the House tweeted their initial reactions.
“Anyone think Twitter will actually use this feature fairly?” Republicans from the House Judiciary Committee tweeted.
“Censorship by crowds … what could go wrong?” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Co., Tweeted.
A rep. Dan Bishop, RN.C., added: “Twitter makes libs an army of censorship. I feel very 1984 …”
Twitter told Fox News that the company “does no fact-checking” with Birdwatch, saying it “is not a true-or-false tool” but rather a way to “add context”.
“We know people are coming to Twitter to stay informed, and they want credible information to help them do that,” said Product Director Twitter Keith Coleman. “We apply labels and add context to Tweets, but we do not want to limit efforts to circumstances where something violates our rules or enjoys widespread public attention.”
Coleman said Twitter wants to expand the range of voices that are part of tackling this issue, and the Big Tech giant believes a community-driven approach can help. ‘
Birdwatch is only in the pilot phase on Monday and only 1,000 users will be selected initially.
“We want to invite anyone to sign up and participate in this program, and know that the broader and more diverse the group, the better Birdwatch will be able to handle misinformation effectively,” Coleman told Fox News.
To be admitted, you must be a U.S. user, have a verified email address, a verified U.S. phone number, and have no Twitter policy violations within the past year. Twitter told Fox News that if a user violates the rules or suspects their accounts, it ‘disqualifies’ them from considering for the pilot.
It is unclear when the new tools may be available to all Twitter users.
The company acknowledged that the pilot “is sometimes messy and sometimes has problems”, but said they “believe it’s a model worth trying.”
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“We know there are a number of challenges to setting up a community-driven system like this,” Coleman said. He has the potential to manipulate the instrument and the potential to ‘become’ dominated by a simple majority or biased based on the distribution of contributors. “
“We want people to write for a different audience than what they write on Twitter,” said Jonah Grant, Twitter’s software engineer. “We want people to be helpful, even to those who disagree.”
Coleman added that on main Twitter is their users’ audience, which he says is typically “people who already agree with you.”
“Birdwatch is a different mindset,” Coleman said, adding that a user “contributes to everyone,” even to those “who may not have the same perspective.”
Meanwhile, Coleman said Twitter “conducted more than 100 qualitative interviews’ with individuals’ across the entire political spectrum using Twitter ‘, saying they’ received broad general support for Birdwatch ‘.
“People appreciate notes that are in the community’s voice (rather than those of Twitter or a central authority) and appreciate that notes provide useful context for better understanding and evaluating a tweet (rather than concentrating on it. to label ‘true’ or false).), ‘Coleman said.
Twitter’s goal is to build Birdwatch “in public” and have it shaped by the Twitter community, but also said it is taking “important steps” to make Birdwatch “transparent”, through the data that contributes to Birdwatch make publicly available and downloadable.
Birdwatch comes as Twitter takes a more aggressive approach to misinformation on the platform.
Twitter, senior director of public policy strategy and development, Nick Pickles, said the company has been focusing for more than a year on research and public commentary that set out what Twitter users are looking for in terms of misinformation.
“The most important thing we heard was that they want Twitter to provide them with more context about misleading information and remove malicious information,” Pickles said.
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Twitter has taken action over the past few months to expand a number of its policies to monitor misleading information – specifically around the 2020 presidential election and coronavirus vaccinations.
And earlier this month, Twitter suspended former President Donald Trump permanently from the platform after the company said it was violating their policies. The move has angered some who claim that conservative speech is being censored by the technology giant.
Earlier this month, Twitter suspended more than 70,000 accounts sharing ‘harmful QAnon-associated content’, which they said was dedicated to ‘spreading this conspiracy theory’ across the platform.
Pickles explained that Twitter is starting to apply labels and remove certain misleading content in a way that ‘makes people’ stand still.
“We realize that these solutions do not solve,” Pickles said, pointing to the “challenges of fact-checking”, but saying Birdwatch is a reflection of this approach. ‘
Pickles said there is a ‘desire’ for people on Twitter to ‘move fast’ and provide more context for potentially misleading information.
“People want to be part of the conversation about what resources are credible to give people more context,” Pickles said.
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“We are excited about it,” Coleman said, adding that the company does not want to “stop at the boundaries of where our policies are.”
“We want to give more people a voice in the process of deciding when to add context, and to decide what the context says,” Coleman said, emphasizing that there is more confidence behind a community-based approach than when it comes through any singular. institution or technology company. ‘