Twitter’s experiment with disinformation reporting is now available in more countries. Like TechCrunch reports, Twitter has expanded test reports “is misleading” for Brazil, Spain and the Philippines — a significant release when the option was previously only available in Australia, South Korea and the United States. The rollout is expected to continue throughout 2022.
The tool has been popular, at least. Twitter said it has received more than 3.7 million reports since the disinformation test was launched in August 2021. Although the site’s head of integrity Yoel Roth said the “vast majority” of disinformation responses were Whether automated or proactive, user reports have already helped the company detect patterns. It was especially useful for identifying links and media beyond Twitter, Roth said.
The leader warned that the reports have their limitations so far. Only about 10 percent of them deserved action versus 20 to 30 percent for other categories (such as abuse). Some people were prone to just flagging off-topic tweets as disinformation. The experimentation will give Twitter a chance to “filter and prioritize” reports, according to Roth, and improve functionality for languages other than English.
Along with the Birdwatch fact-checking program, the expanded reporting test represents a partial shift towards crowdsourcing as part of Twitter’s efforts to combat falsehoods. We wouldn’t expect Twitter to rely primarily on users, given the sheer volume of posts. However, these initiatives can help Twitter catch misinformation that it would otherwise miss, and can prevent false claims from gaining significant traction.
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