Twitter tightens rules, will label tweets containing 'manipulated media'

NEW DELHI: Twitter on Wednesday said it will soon begin labelling tweets containing "manipulated media" which aim to mislead people, and would take steps including removal of tweets if such content has the potential to harm public safety or lead to voter supression.

Other measures include flashing a warning to users before they share or like tweets that contain 'synthetic and manipulated media' and reducing visibility of the said tweet on its platform.

The crackdown over synthetic and manipulated media comes at a time when there are widespread concerns globally over altered, forged content on social media, including deepfake videos, and its catastrophic implications.


"If we believe that media shared in a tweet have been significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated, we will provide additional context on the tweet. This means we may apply a label to the tweet, show a warning to people before they retweet or like the tweet...," the microblogging platform said in its latest blog post.

Other actions under the updated rules include reducing visibility of the tweet on Twitter and preventing it from being recommended, and providing extra explanations or clarifications, as available, such as a landing page with more context.

"In most cases, we will take all of the above actions on tweets we label. Our teams will start labeling Tweets with this type of media on March 5, 2020," Twitter said.

To determine whether the media has been significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated, Twitter said it will consider whether the content has been substantially edited in a manner that fundamentally alters its composition and sequence.

It will also take stock of any visual or auditory information - such as new video frames, overdubbed audio, or modified subtitles - that has been added or removed.

Other consideration will be whether media depicting a real person has been fabricated or simulated.