Twitter’s latest effort in its fight against fake news comes in the form of “Birdwatch’, which is a new feature to avoid the spread of misinformation.
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This tool will help Twitter users report misleading tweets or any misinformation directly to the social network’s content moderators. People will be able to add notes to tweets to provide context as to why a tweet is or is not misleading.
New Twitter feature?
‘Birdwatch’?! 🐦
Any guesses what it does? pic.twitter.com/1vmpZdTKLi
— Matt Navarra – Exiting X… Follow me on Threads (@MattNavarra) September 30, 2020
Multiple users have spotted hints of the feature on Twitter. According to reports, tweets can be added with the “Add to Birdwatch” option that appears on the usual drop-down menu on tweets. There will be a new binocular icon to indicate it which will take you to the tweet’s history of notes.
People will be given a questionnaire for why they believe a tweet is misleading or not and will also be given a box to provide evidence with up to 580 characters. This note will become a public document of sorts for the tweet’s authenticity which everyone can see.
Birdwatch was first spotted by researcher Jane Manchun Wong.
Twitter continues working on “Birdwatch”, the crowdsourced misinformation combatting tool which they’ve confirmed working on yesterday
Here’s the first look of Birdwatch’s “Twitter Community” form, where users states and elaborates whether a tweet is misleading pic.twitter.com/0zbQppm2kh
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 3, 2020
It is currently unknown whether the feature will roll out to the public, or only a chosen few will be able to report and add notes to tweets.
Twitter’s product lead Kayvon Beykpour has said that they will reveal more about their plans on Birdwatch soon.
