That social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook, they have become one of the main channels for spreading fake news and misinformation is something that is evident just by spending a few minutes in any of them. This, in the end, is a big problem for those responsible (in addition to its users, obviously), as they see how platforms launched for very different purposes have become the preferred space for professional liars, manipulators, conspiracy theorists and others. Similar characters, whether with one intention or another, lie constantly in them.
Aware of this, their managers They have been taking measures to prevent it for some time. (although in the case of Facebook, we have recently learned that it did not take it, perhaps, as seriously as it should, putting economic interests before responsibility), because it should not be a dish of good taste to know that more and more users see your service as a space of informative intoxication. Twitter seems to have taken its responsibility a little more seriously and, in response, launched a new system last August to report misleading information.
In its first phase of testing, this service was activated in Australia, South Korea and the United States, list that has now been expanded with three new countries, including Spain, along with Brazil and the Philippines, as we can read on the blog from Twitter Spain. Of course, it is important to clarify that with this extension Twitter does not end the test phase. On the contrary, what it does is expand it, while proposing possible solutions for the problems that have been identified in the first phase.
«Expanding the experiment to these countries will allow us to continue validating this tool in markets important to Twitter whose primary language is not English. In addition, the upcoming elections in Brazil, the Philippines and the mid-term elections in the United States, as well as the upcoming regional elections in Spain, will also help us learn about the usefulness of this reporting channel during electoral periods.»
Last year we started testing a new feature for reporting misleading information in the US, South Korea and Australia. Today, we are expanding this pilot to Brazil, the Philippines, and Spain.https://t.co/JMmurRcl8j
— Secure Twitter (@SecureTwitter) January 17, 2022
It is clear that, although there is false information in many areas, the politician is one of the most strident, without a single day without at least one hoax being spread. The problem is that, for a growing group of people, who for whatever reason have abandoned the “traditional” media, social networks have become one of their main channels of information, which is why the profusion of hoaxes can to generate very broad biases in the users of Twitter and other networks.
Twitter clarifies, however, that no action may be taken during this testing phase with the messages that could break the rules of the network, precisely as a result of which this new function has been created. According to the company, a high volume of the complaints received in the first phase of the tests had to be discarded because it did not fit what was being pursued. Thus, it should be understood that it will still be necessary to make users more aware of the appropriate uses of it.
