Twitter has announced that it will place inaccurate messages regarding the Ukraine war from official accounts behind warning notices.
The shift comes after the social media site came under increased scrutiny after the war unleashed a new wave of misinformation, some of which came from official sources.
More than 300 Russian government accounts, including President Putin’s, have already had their content restricted on Twitter.
However, it raises questions about free speech.
Twitter’s new “crisis” procedures prioritise labelling of false messages from accounts with a large following, such as state media or official government accounts, but keep them for “accountability” reasons.
To view the post, users will have to click through the warning notice, and Twitter will limit the ability to like, retweet, or share the information.
To avoid magnifying bogus posts, Twitter announced it would adjust its search and explore tools.
According to Twitter, problematic messages are those containing false or inaccurate charges of war crimes, false information about the international response, and false allegations of the use of force.
The corporation stated that it would use numerous sources to determine whether or not claims are false. According to the guidelines, strong commentary and first-person accounts are among the types of tweets that will not be disputed.
Mr Roth stated that Twitter had begun developing new protocols for crises before the invasion of Ukraine, albeit the war had brought them to light.
The corporation took steps early in the conflict to limit the reach of Russian media accounts. However, it lacked a clear strategy for dealing with disinformation spread by politicians or government accounts.
While some messages were removed by moderators, experts described the absence of strategy in the firm’s moderation procedures as a “major weakness.”
Last month, Twitter announced that it had discovered over 300 Russian government accounts that it would no longer suggest in timelines, notifications, or anywhere else on the platform.
Mr Roth told reporters on a conference call that the business has observed: that “both parties communicate information that may be misleading and/or deceptive.”
