Twitter is taking its fight against misinformation a step further. When you attempt to hit the Like button on a disputed Tweet, Twitter will display a warning notification.
Twitter Wants Less Likes on Disputed Content
In an attempt to stop the spread of misinformation, Twitter is putting a roadblock in front of users who want to Like a disputed Tweet. Twitter Support outlined its new warning label in a Tweet.
Giving context on why a labeled Tweet is misleading under our election, COVID-19, and synthetic and manipulated media rules is vital.
These prompts helped decrease Quote Tweets of misleading information by 29% so we’re expanding them to show when you tap to like a labeled Tweet. pic.twitter.com/WTK164nMfZ
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 23, 2020
The platform noted, “giving context on why a labeled Tweet is misleading under our election, COVID-19, and synthetic and manipulated media rules is vital.”
Before the 2020 US presidential election, the platform debuted a warning notification that appears when you try to Retweet content that’s labeled as misleading. The notification redirects you to information from a credible source, and encourages you to Quote Tweet the disputed content instead.
According to Twitter, this notification reduced the number of Quote Tweets containing misinformation by 29 percent. After seeing success with that notification, Twitter has decided to apply a similar warning to Likes as well.
Now, you’ll see a warning message whenever you try to Like a Tweet that’s labeled as misleading. Twitter hopes that this warning will encourage users to reevaluate the content before Liking it. In turn, this may reduce the overall number of Likes on misleading Tweets.
This is far from the only measure that Twitter has taken to curb the prevalence of misinformation on the platform.
Twitter now prompts users to read articles before Retweeting them, and also aggressively applied warning labels to candidates’ Tweets that declared premature victory during the presidential election.
The platform has even gone so far as to slow down the Retweet process. When you try to Retweet content, whether it’s disputed or not, you’ll see a notification that encourages you to Quote Tweet it instead.
While you can still proceed to Retweet it, you’ll have to pass through that nagging notification first. Twitter stated that this would be a temporary measure put in place for the election, but it still remains on the site.
Is Twitter Taking Its War on Misinformation Too Far?
It’s understandable why Twitter might feel the need to slow down Retweets, but putting a roadblock in front of Likes just seems impractical.
After all, the act of Liking a post doesn’t mean the post will be shared for millions of users to see. Retweeting content is a much stronger action, as it relays content to even more users across Twitter.
That said, it’s clear that simply Liking a post just doesn’t have the same effect as Retweeting one. Sure, a post with thousands of Likes will get more attention, but a post with thousands of Retweets is much more influential.
And since Twitter already applies labels to misleading posts, it may be a bit overkill to warn users just for Liking them.
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