Twitter has joined hands with the Associated Press and Reuters to curb misinformation on its platform. As part of the agreement, the micro blogging site will leverage the expertise of the news agencies to highlight credible information and add more context to the news and trends that circulate across Twitter.
Twitter said, the partnership will help it increase the speed and scale to which it’s able to add this additional information to tweets and elsewhere on its platform. This could also be useful in stopping misinformation from going viral, instead of waiting until after the fact to correct misleading tweets. The Twitter Curation team will use the expertise of new agencies to not just to add context to stories and conversations, but also to help identify which stories need context added
The partnerships mark the first time Twitter will formally collaborate with news organizations to elevate accurate information on its site, a Twitter spokesperson said.
“Trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day … those values also drive our commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation,” Hazel Baker, global head of UGC (user-generated content) newsgathering at Reuters, said in a statement.
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Twitter has come under scrutiny for its handling of misleading or false information on its site. The real-time nature of the platform and attempts to manipulate the truth by high profile figures for their own benefit have things worse for the platform. Earlier this year, the platform launched a tool called Birdwatch, asking its users to help identify and fact-check misleading tweets. The program will also leverage feedback from AP and Reuters to help determine the quality of information shared by Birdwatch participants.
