Social media can be a very scary place. Especially with fake news spreading quickly and misinformation often being shared on social media, sometimes the stuff you see on sites like Facebook and Twitter may not always be accurate.

And as part of its effort to reduce the spread of misinformation on its platform, Twitter will now start banning deceptive, fake media on its platform.

Twitter said that the company understands that some tweets may include manipulated photos or videos that can cause people “harm”. Twitter will, therefore, start removing some of these tweets that may include manipulated photos/videos. For some others, Twitter will start labelling them as misinformation, with more information on exactly how the shared media is fake, etc.

The company says the move was triggered by a survey it did last year, whereby a majority of users said they wanted Twitter providing more information and context on tweets that may have included fake media while labelling those tweets as misinformation.

We know that some Tweets include manipulated photos or videos that can cause people harm. Today we’re introducing a new rule and a label that will address this and give people more context around these Tweets pic.twitter.com/P1ThCsirZ4

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 4, 2020

Twitter is actually going to start labelling tweets with fake media starting on March 5. “This will be a challenge and we will make errors along the way — we appreciate the patience. However, we’re committed to doing this right. Updating our rules in public and with democratic participation will continue to be core to our approach,” the company said. You can find out more about the new policy here, and here.

Tagged with Fake News, Social Media, Twitter