Explained: How Twitter plans to flag lies and fake videos
The
Indian Express
February
27, 2020
Explained:
How Twitter plans to flag lies and fake videos
Over
the years, Twitter has often been called out by misinformation spread by its
users, some of whom are politicians and public figures with a wide audience.
Earlier this month, Twitter announced plans for dealing with deep fakes, or
manipulated video.
Now, news
has emerged that Twitter is testing out a new way to combat misinformation in
tweets. This was first reported last week by NBC News, which attributed its
information to a leaked demo of a new feature.
What
is this new feature?
Tweets
that have potential misinformation or lies will start showing an orange or red
label with the tag ‘Harmfully Misleading’ beneath them, according to
screenshots shared by NBC News. The message beneath the label reads, “Twitter
Community reports have identified this tweet as violating the Community Policy
on Harmfully Misleading information. The tweet’s visibility will be reduced.
How far can this stop the spread of misinformation?
The red
and orange labels will be hard to miss. At the very least, these will warn
users about misinformation. More importantly, Twitter will reduce the reach for
the particular tweet, which means it will show up on fewer timelines and will
have much less visibility.
Twitter
will also highlight tweets that point out the false claims being made in the
misleading tweet. Twitter is looking to encourage community members to write
“Notes” and provide “critical context” to earn points. It will rely on
community-based feedback system to remove misinformation.
This
reliance on community reports can, however, be problematic. This opens up the
possibility of ill-judged reporting, or individual or ideological biases coming
into play. For instance, a historian could tweet out a view that might not be
favourable with a certain section of people and it might get tagged as
misleading, even if that were not really the case. At the moment, it is not
clear how Twitter will assess these ‘community’ reports, given that the context
will vary from one country to another.
Twitter
will reportedly give out a “community badge” to those who “contribute in good
faith and act like a good neighbour”. This again will raise questions on what
exactly the criteria will be for determining who gets designated as “good
neighbour”. Verified fact-checkers, journalists are expected to get preference
when calling out tweets with misleading information.
What
is Twitter’s plan for deep fakes?
Deep
fakes, which Twitter calls “synthetic or manipulated media”, are videos on
which complex AI tools are used to create a fake video or image or audio, which
is difficult to identify as such. Deep fakes can be used to attribute false
speech to a politician. They are also used to create pornographic videos.
Twitter
revealed that where it fears an image has been “significantly and deceptively
altered or fabricated”, it will provide additional context by applying a label.
A tweet with a deep fake media would also appear with a warning before more
users retweet or like the tweet. It also plans to reduce visibility for such
tweets, and prevent it from being recommended.
If Twitter
assesses the deep fake is likely to cause harm, it will remove the tweet. Such
media would include threats to a person or group, mass violence, or impacting
the privacy of a particular user. The labelling of tweets containing deep fakes
will start on March 5.
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