Twitter mentioned in a statement that it will block retweets and likes of so called misleading social media content form candidates ahead of the presidential elections of the United States of America. This is a move that will increase the tensions that Twitter already had with Donald Trump. Last months, Twitter made attempts to tackle the spread of false information by adding for example labels on tweets that indicate that it needs to be fact-checked.
Past weeks, Twitter made new statements that it was updating its guidelines to add “additional warnings to misleading tweets” from all US political figures, also including the current president and Joe Biden, but also on accounts that have more then 100.000 followers. Hereby, users of Twitter will have warnings as popups within the app that covers a misleading tweet. Here the user must click on the warning in order to read the tweet. Hereby, they also will take away the function to be able to like, retweet or to reply to the specific Tweet.
The moral question here is, is of course whether technology giants such as Twitter must have the power to label information being real or potentially false. Freedom of speech an important metric for citizens of the United States, and having eyes of commercial organizations on every word in order to mention whether the statement is a ‘good one’ is a crooked idea. Although, as industry dominance is increasing by a few big players in the technology industry, Twitter is making a good first move that seriously tries to tackle the problems of ‘fake news’ and misinformation.
All the above, are factors that could set Twitter on a large scale collision with hefty Twitter user Donald Trump. Twitter already has labeled Trump as a spreader of misinformation, and thus is interfering with the elections itself already. For the coming years, will the regulation by technology companies on creating content become fiercer, and thus limiting your freedom of speech? Or should companies like these let the brakes loose so that every individual on earth make whatever statement they want, even if they are looked upon by millions of others?
1) https://www.ft.com/content/feda2f38-4777-4400-8602-f2bc0a60de42
2) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-twitter-idUSKBN26U1XK
