When it comes to fighting misinformation,??? ??? ??? ??? ?? at least Twitter is trying to do the right thing.
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed as much Thursday, following the social media company's announcement of new labels for "government and state-affiliated media accounts." Twitter's idea, which Rep. Ocasio-Cortez praised as a good-faith effort, involves slapping a prominent label on two types of accounts.
"Accounts of key government officials, including foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders" will all receive labels, Twitter explained. As will "[accounts] belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their senior staff."
A recent tweet from the Twitter Support account demonstrated what these labels will look like. The two provided examples are "US government account," and "Russia state-affiliated media."
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This, according to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, is what responsible action looks like in the social media space.
"Stopping misinformation isn't abt sitting around for years debating ideas," wrote the Congresswoman. "It's about testing tactics, trying ideas, etc to find what’s effective."
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"Not everything we try is going to work," she continued. "Is a ban on political ads the best route? Prob not. But at least there's a willingness to recognize how dangerous misinfo is & act."
SEE ALSO: Facebook removes Trump post for spreading COVID-19 misinformation
As we approach the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a willingness to fight misinformation — both political, and, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, health-related — is more important than ever. As far as Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is concerned, today's announcement from Twitter is a positive sign of things to come.
Topics X/Twitter