Twitter Labels 300,000 US Election Tweets - 0.2% Total

A little more than one week following the U.S. elections, Twitter has released details regarding its efforts to identify and mark tweets containing potentially misleading information. The platform reports that between October 27th and November 11th, approximately 300,000 tweets were labeled under its Civic Integrity Policy. This represents roughly 0.2% of all election-related tweets posted during that fourteen-day timeframe.

It’s important to recognize that Twitter’s warnings varied in severity. A total of only 456 tweets received a warning that both covered the text of the tweet and restricted user interaction, specifically disabling the ability to retweet, reply to, or like the post. This more impactful warning did effectively limit engagement, with approximately three-quarters of users who encountered these tweets viewing the obscured content after interacting with the warning. Twitter data indicates that quote tweets of these labeled posts decreased by around 29%.

The U.S. president received a significant portion of these labels, as reported by The New York Times, with just over one-third of President Trump’s tweets from November 3rd to November 6th being flagged with a warning. The period following the election (to the extent the election can be considered concluded) seems to have resulted in a slight delay in the platform’s response time, although President Trump continues to be labeled as he consistently uses his account to challenge the election results, which have been affirmed by the vast majority of major news organizations.

As of the latest update, the president’s most recent tweet has been labeled as disputed, but not hidden, as he reiterates accusations against Dominion, a voting machine manufacturer. Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy, Trust & Safety Lead, and Kayvon Beykpour, Product Lead, stated, “We also want to be very clear that our work is not finished.” They further emphasized, “Our efforts are ongoing, and our teams are continually learning and refining our approach to addressing these challenges.”

Following the 2016 election, Twitter, along with other social media platforms, faced considerable criticism regarding their role in the dissemination of misinformation. In response, Twitter implemented changes to its recommendations and retweet functions, and also began individually labeling tweets that violate its established policies.

Earlier today, YouTube explained its decision to maintain controversial videos related to the election, stating, “Similar to other companies, we are permitting these videos because discussions concerning election outcomes and the vote-counting process are allowed on YouTube. These videos are not being prominently featured or recommended.”