Twitter Partners with AP and Reuters to Combat Misinformation

Twitter Enhances News Reliability Through Partnerships

Today, Twitter announced a collaboration with leading news organizations, The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, to bolster its commitment to presenting trustworthy news and information to its users. These new agreements will empower Twitter’s Curation team to utilize the specialized knowledge of these partners.

Expanding Context and Combating Misinformation

The Curation team will gain the ability to enrich news and trending topics on Twitter with additional context. This will also support the implementation of public service announcements during significant events, as well as the application of misinformation labels.

Currently, the Curation team focuses on supplementing information related to Top Trends and news featured within Twitter’s Explore tab. They also influence the ranking of search results, prioritizing content from reputable sources when specific keywords or hashtags are utilized.

Proactive Information Support

The team’s responsibilities extend to the prompts displayed in the Explore tab on the Home Timeline, particularly concerning major occurrences like public health crises or elections. Furthermore, they contribute to the creation of misinformation labels affixed to tweets that, while remaining visible, are accompanied by clarifying context from authoritative sources.

These labels are applied to tweets that contravene Twitter’s policies regarding manipulated media, election integrity, or information related to COVID-19. It’s important to note that the Curation team operates independently from the Trust and Safety team, which handles guideline violations and enforcement actions.

Increased Speed and Scale

By directly collaborating with AP and Reuters – organizations that also collaborate with Facebook on fact-checking initiatives – Twitter aims to accelerate and broaden its capacity to add contextual information to tweets and across its platform. This is especially crucial during breaking news events and when factual disputes arise.

This proactive approach has the potential to curtail the viral spread of misinformation, rather than solely relying on corrections after misleading tweets have already gained traction.

Leveraging Birdwatch

Twitter’s crowdsourced fact-checking system, Birdwatch, will also benefit from feedback provided by AP and Reuters, aiding in the assessment of the quality of information submitted by Birdwatch participants.

Identifying Contextual Needs

The collaboration will involve the Curation team working with the news organizations to not only add context to stories but also to pinpoint which narratives require additional clarification. This enhanced context may appear in various locations on Twitter, including tweets themselves, search results, the Explore tab, and curated collections known as Twitter Moments.

Addressing a Long-Standing Challenge

Twitter has historically faced challenges in managing misinformation due to its real-time nature and its use by prominent individuals who may attempt to distort the truth. The company has implemented numerous features to mitigate the spread of false information, including disabling instant retweets, adding fact-checks, and suspending accounts.

Birdwatch represents the latest effort to provide context to tweets, but it adopts a decentralized approach, differing from initiatives that rely on trusted partners.

Statements from AP and Reuters

Tom Januszewski, Vice President of Global Business Development at AP, stated, “AP has a long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism. This work is core to our mission.” He further added, “We are particularly excited about leveraging AP’s scale and speed to add context to online conversations, which can benefit from easy access to the facts.”

Hazel Baker, the head of UGC Newsgathering at Reuters, commented, “Trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day, providing billions of people with the information they need to make smart decisions.” Baker continued, “Those values also drive our commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation. We’re excited to partner with Twitter to leverage our deep global and local expertise to serve the public conversation with reliable information.”

Future Expansion

The initial phase of these collaborations will concentrate on English-language content on Twitter. However, the company anticipates expanding the scope over time to encompass additional languages and time zones, with plans to evaluate opportunities for onboarding collaborators supporting further linguistic diversity.