Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Twitter Launches Crowd-Sourced Fact-Checking Project
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
January 26, 2021

Share

Twitter is enlisting its users to help combat misinformation on its service by flagging and notating misleading and false tweets.

The pilot program unveiled Monday, called Birdwatch, allows a preselected group of users — for now, only in the U.S. — who sign up through Twitter. Those who want to sign up must have a U.S.-based phone carrier, verified email and phone number, and no recent Twitter rule violations.

Twitter said it wants both experts and non-experts to write Birdwatch notes. It cited Wikipedia as a site that thrives with non-expert contributions.

“In concept testing, we’ve seen non-experts write concise, helpful and easy-to-understand notes, often citing valuable expert sources,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Twitter, along with other social media companies, has been grappling how best to combat misinformation on its service. Despite tightened rules and enforcement, falsehoods about the U.S. presidential election and the coronavirus continue to spread.

The Program Will Start With 1,000 Users and Eventually Expand Beyond the U.S.

But if the effort is to work, Twitter will have to anticipate misuse and bad actors trying to game the system to their advantage.

To help weed out unhelpful or troll-created notes, for instance, Twitter plans to attach a “helpfulness score” to each one and will label helpful ones “currently rated helpful.”

The company said Birdwatch will not replace other labels and fact checks Twitter currently uses — primarily for election and COVID-19-related misinformation and misleading posts.

The program will start with 1,000 users and eventually expand beyond the U.S.

San Francisco-based Twitter said it is trying to ensure that Birdwatch has a diverse range of perspectives and participants — an ongoing problem at Wikipedia, where many of the contributors and editors are white men.

“If we have more applicants than pilot slots, we will randomly admit accounts, prioritizing accounts that tend to follow and engage with different audiences and content than those of existing participants,” Twitter wrote.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Pope Francis in Critical Condition After Long Respiratory Crisis

DON'T MISS

Musk Gives All Federal Workers 48 Hours to Explain What They Did Last Week

DON'T MISS

Fresno State Suspends 2 Players, Removes Another Amid Gambling Investigation

DON'T MISS

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

DON'T MISS

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

DON'T MISS

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

DON'T MISS

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

DON'T MISS

US and Ukraine Nearing Rare Earths Deal That Would Tighten Relationship

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Two Other Military Officers

DON'T MISS

Less Is More: 5 Ingredient Dinners Are Easier Than You Think

UP NEXT

Bullard Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Behavior With a Minor, Principal Says

UP NEXT

Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Identifies as LGBTQ+, Survey Finds

UP NEXT

Arctic Blast Causes Massive Pileups, Power Outages Across East Coast

UP NEXT

Struggling Forever 21 Plans to Close 200 Stores in Possible 2nd Bankruptcy

UP NEXT

2 People Are Dead in a Small Plane Collision at a Southern Arizona Airport

UP NEXT

Official White House Account Declares Trump ‘King’ in Latest Post

UP NEXT

A$AP Rocky Returns to a Life of Music, Fashion, Film and Rihanna With His Acquittal

UP NEXT

Leonard Peltier Released After Biden Commuted Sentence in FBI Agents’ Killings

UP NEXT

Death of South Korean Actor at 24 Sparks Discussion About Social Media

UP NEXT

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

4 hours ago

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

4 hours ago

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

10 hours ago

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

10 hours ago

US and Ukraine Nearing Rare Earths Deal That Would Tighten Relationship

10 hours ago

Trump Fires Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Two Other Military Officers

10 hours ago

Less Is More: 5 Ingredient Dinners Are Easier Than You Think

10 hours ago

Trump-Putin Summit Preparations Are Underway, Russia Says

10 hours ago

Warren Buffett Offers Trump Some Advice While Celebrating Berkshire’s Success

11 hours ago

Hungarians Will Decide Whether Ukraine Can Join the European Union, Orbán Says

11 hours ago

Pope Francis in Critical Condition After Long Respiratory Crisis

ROME — Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis while being treated for pn...

3 hours ago

3 hours ago

Pope Francis in Critical Condition After Long Respiratory Crisis

4 hours ago

Musk Gives All Federal Workers 48 Hours to Explain What They Did Last Week

4 hours ago

Fresno State Suspends 2 Players, Removes Another Amid Gambling Investigation

4 hours ago

Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners, Citing ‘Degrading’ Hostage Handovers

4 hours ago

Officer Killed After Gunman Took Hostages at Pennsylvania Hospital

10 hours ago

Kash Patel Plans to Move Up to 1,500 Workers Out of Washington

10 hours ago

Fired Employees Fear Beloved Yosemite National Park Will Lose Its Luster

10 hours ago

US and Ukraine Nearing Rare Earths Deal That Would Tighten Relationship

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend