Twitter is experimenting with adding bright orange warning labels directly beneath what it deems to be “fake news” according to a leaked demo of new features sent to NBC News.
Twitter confirmed that the leaked demo, which was accessible on a publicly available site, is one possible iteration of a new policy to target misinformation it plans to roll out March 5.
In this version, disinformation or misleading information posted by public figures will be corrected directly beneath the tweet by fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform, and possibly other users who will participate in a new “community reports” feature, which the demo claims is “like Wikipedia.”
In one iteration of the demo, Twitter users could earn “points” and a “community badge” if they “contribute in good faith and act like a good neighbor” and “provide critical context to help people understand information they see.”
In the demo, community members are asked if the tweet is “likely” or “unlikely” to be “harmfully misleading.” They are then asked to rate how many community members will answer the same as them on a sliding scale of 1 to 100, before elaborating on why the tweet is harmfully misleading.
“The more points you earn, the more your vote counts,” the demo reads.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck with your can of worms, Twitter.