Twitter will soon remove and label any tweets that it believes are intended to undermine the 2020 election.
The social network announced the policy update on Thursday, September 10. Tweets that would be categorized as undermining the election include misleading information about election laws, misleading claims about election results, and tweets with disputed claims about topics like election rigging or ballot tampering.
Twitter said the updated policy would be “applied equally and judiciously for everyone” starting September 17.
“We will not permit our service to be abused around civic processes, most importantly elections. Any attempt to do so — both foreign and domestic — will be met with strict enforcement of our rules, which are applied equally and judiciously for everyone,” Twitter’s blog post reads.
These updates are just some of many Twitter has implemented in recent months to secure the 2020 election. Among some of these policies put into place include voting misinformation reporting, which is a tool that helps “identify and remove misinformation that could suppress voter turnout.” Users can use the Report an issue tool on a tweet and choose It’s misleading about a political election to flag false content.
Twitter also banned political ads and deepfakes/manipulated media. The platform initiated a label on tweets containing manipulated media and a policy to hide or remove tweets based on whether the content is deemed “harmful.”
The platform is also working with other tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft to fight election interference. The coalition has regular meetings with government agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss what trends they see and coordinate efforts between platforms.
