Twitter Launches Preemptive Notices to Combat 2020 Election Misinformation
Twitter introduces prominent, attention-grabbing notices at the top of U.S. feeds to warn users about potential mail-in voting misinformation and delayed election results.
Twitter rolls out two large, prominent notices at the top of U.S. user feeds to preemptively combat election-related misinformation. One alert warns users about potential misleading information regarding mail-in voting, while the other cautions that official election results face possible delays due to an unprecedented volume of mailed ballots.
These proactive messages represent a significant shift from Twitter's previous strategy of attaching small, easy-to-miss labels to individual false claims. By displaying these striking warnings to everyone before false narratives take hold, the platform aims to normalize the reality that different state rules for processing mail-in ballots mean final results take extra time to tally.
The notices direct users to curated Twitter Moments containing authoritative information on both voting and election delays, and they also appear during searches for relevant terms and hashtags. This proactive approach highlights how social media companies adapt their platforms to handle the unique challenges of a contentious U.S. election happening during a national health crisis.