Why Twitter's warning-label strategy has the potential to backfire, by max_read
Photo: John Locher/AP/Shutterstock On Thursday, the Bloomberg campaign posted a misleadingly edited video to its candidate’s Twitter account. The video shows the former New York City mayor asking his opponents in Wednesday night’s debate if any of them had ever started a business — followed by a 30-second pause, as each of the other candidates shifts silently and awkwardly behind their podiums. In reality, no such awkward pause followed Bloomberg’s question on Wednesday night.
As we hurtle toward a new presidential election, Twitter is trying out a variety of new ideas geared at containing or counteracting misinformation. Yesterday NBC News reported that the company is testing the addition of colorful labels to any misleading tweet — not just misleadingly manipulated media.
Of course, that’s not to say that misinformation on Twitter is not a problem. Twitter’s willingness to take decisive editorial action is admirable, even if it won’t suddenly restore consensus reality. But even within that more limited context, I’m not entirely convinced that this is the right method. When asking if Twitter’s warning-label strategy will work at combating misinformation, it also matters how you define “misinformation.
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