In preparation for the US midterm elections in 2022, Twitter is both resurrecting and enhancing its election disinformation strategy. In order to be ready for the election, the social network has restarted enforcement of its Civic Integrity Policy. This year also brings a few upgrades. It will refrain from recommending bogus tweets through alerts, so misinformation may not spread as far as in the past. The business is thinking about using this strategy for “other surfaces” as well.
Redesigned fact-check labels that are better at encouraging readers should also be implemented. Late January 2021, Twitter ran its first test of these labels.
Other efforts will be more familiar. You already see candidate labels for any Governor, House or Senate hopeful who qualified for the general election ballot. You can expect “prebunks” that counter bogus claims before they become hot topics. You’ll find a dedicated US Elections tab in Explore, along with state-specific hubs. Twitter plans to ramp up protection for candidates as well, with “more sophisticated” detection of suspicious activity as well as more login safeguards and speedier account recovery should the worst happen.
These aren’t dramatic changes to Twitter’s methods from previous elections, including those outside the US. However, it’s clear the firm is bracing for trouble in light of the fallout from 2020. The question is whether or not this will be enough. Critics warned of shortcomings in social media companies’ anti-misinformation efforts during the previous elections, and tweaks to recommendations and labels aren’t guaranteed to address those issues.
