Twitter’s new feature to slow down likes for tweets spreading misinformation

Twitter is working on a new feature that stalls the process of liking a tweet that has been labelled as misinformation.

The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo (REUTERS)

Social platforms took unprecedented measures to contain the spread of misinformation during the US presidential elections. Twitter, in particular, took extra steps such as adding a label to tweets that may be misleading. Now, Twitter is expanding the labels to slow down likes to such misleading tweets.

Reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong discovered a new upcoming feature that stalls the process of liking a tweet. The process does not completely stop you from liking but shows a prompt when someone likes a tweet labelled as misinformation. A similar prompt appears when someone tries to retweet such labelled posts.

Twitter is working on misinformation warning on Likes, just like the ones for Quote Tweets / Retweets pic.twitter.com/BLlmaw5RZK

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 9, 2020

The latest feature is likely to help contain the spread of misleading tweets, which go viral on Twitter more often. So far, Twitter has taken various measures in this regard. For instance, it shows a prompt when someone tries to retweet a tweet with a link without opening it.

Twitter also went on to flag some of the tweets from US President Donald Trump on the elections eve. The micro-blogging platform has since then continued to label some of his tweets.

Even as social media companies made extra efforts, misinformation continued to spread on these platforms. Facebook took down some prominent pages and one group that were found promoting misinformation. The pages that were linked to Donald Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon. The move impacted at least seven pages that had more than 2 million followers.