Twitter said Monday it has launched a pilot program that lets users tweet what they believe is misleading, and writes notes to provide context.
The project, called Birdwatch, is initially being offered in the United States, the social media firm said in a blogpos.
Twitter and other social media companies were under pressure to combat misinformation on their platforms. Last year, Twitter began adding labels and warnings about misinformation on the site, including about the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. election.
Birdwatch is on a separate section of Twitter, and only pilot participants applying for the program will write posts that identify and refute incorrect information. Their notes will initially not be visible on Twitter to users outside the pilot group, but will be on the Birdwatch website.
Twitter said that eventually there will be between 1,000 and 1,000,000 birdwatchers who are recorded on a running basis and who will not be paid.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to make notes directly visible on Tweets to the global Twitter audience, if there is consensus from a wide and diverse number of contributors,” said Keith Coleman, vice president of the product.
Pilot participants can assess the helpfulness of notes from other contributors.
‘We know that there are a number of challenges to building a community-driven system like this, from making it resistant to tampering efforts to ensuring that it is not dominated or biased by a simple majority, based on distribution. of contributors, ‘Coleman said. the blog post.
“We believe it’s a model worth trying,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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