Twitter revealed a significant series of platform adjustments on Friday, preparing for what is anticipated to be a particularly challenging and pivotal election period in contemporary U.S. history.

Perhaps the most prominent alteration will be a revised approach to discourage users from simply resharing posts without contributing their own insights. Beginning October 20th as a “global” implementation, the platform will encourage users intending to retweet content to instead utilize the quote tweet function. This modification will remain in effect throughout “election week,” after which Twitter will evaluate whether to extend its duration.

“While this introduces a slight increase in effort for those wishing to Retweet, our intention is to prompt users to carefully consider the reasons behind amplifying a Tweet, and to enhance the probability of individuals adding their own thoughts, reactions, and viewpoints to the discussion,” Twitter explained regarding the change, which some users may begin to experience on the web version of Twitter starting Friday.

In recent months, Twitter has been testing modifications designed to introduce obstacles to rapid content sharing. Last month, the company announced a trial feature requiring users to click a link before retweeting to a wider audience. This represents a substantial change in strategy for social media platforms, which historically prioritized user engagement as their primary metric for growth.

https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1314621731164901383

The company also refined its policy concerning the declaration of election outcomes, stipulating that a candidate “may not assert an election victory prior to its official confirmation.” Twitter will rely on determinations made by state election authorities or projections from a minimum of two national news organizations to validate results.

Twitter did not state it would remove posts making premature claims of victory, but indicated it would append a label identifying misleading information to such content, directing users to its curated election information resource. The company does intend to remove any posts “intended to obstruct the election process or the implementation of election results,” including those that promote violence.

Starting next week, Twitter will also implement new limitations on tweets it has flagged as misleading, presenting users with a pop-up message linking to reliable information when they attempt to view the tweet. Twitter applies these labels to content disseminating misinformation about COVID-19, elections and voting procedures, and any media that has been manipulated, such as deepfakes or deceptively edited videos.

The company will also apply further restrictions to labeled tweets originating from U.S. political figures, candidates, or campaigns. Users will be required to tap through a warning to view such tweets. Labeled tweets will have their like, retweet, and reply functions disabled.

These new measures will also extend to labeled tweets from accounts with over 100,000 followers, or those experiencing significant viral spread. “We anticipate this will further diminish the visibility of inaccurate information and encourage users to reconsider amplifying these Tweets,” Twitter stated in its announcement.

Twitter will also suspend recommendations in the timeline to “slow down” the rate at which tweets from accounts users do not follow can reach their audiences. The company characterizes this decision as a “necessary trade-off to foster more deliberate and explicit amplification.” The platform will also restrict trending content to only those topics accompanied by supplementary context, in an effort to curb the dissemination of misinformation.

The company recognizes its “critical role” in safeguarding the U.S. election, adding that it has expanded its dedicated teams to monitor the platform and “respond swiftly” on election night and during the potentially uncertain period until official election results are confirmed.