Want to RT an article? Twitter will make sure that you have read it, first

Several social media giants, be it Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat are trying their best to combat the menace of misinformation. Twitter, in a bid to control the spread of fake news and ‘promote informed discussion’, is testing a new feature that will prompt the users to read an article before retweeting it.

The verified handle, Twitter Support, sent out a tweet on Wednesday, which read “Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it”. Twitter will be testing the new feature on Android and will give a prompt if the user has not read the article before sharing.

In reply to one of the users, Twitter wrote, "We wanted to test a way to improve the health of a conversation as it gets started." Twitter also clarified the users will still have the option to go ahead with the retweet, even if the article had not been read.


One of the users asked Twitter if they have established a revenue stream for themselves based on the click. The social media site was quick to respond and clarified that it is not testing ad products for this form.

This Twitterati had a valid question - how would Twitter get to know that a user had clicked on an article hosted on another website. YouTube had a response ready.

Some users wondered if the information of what was read by each user is stored by Twitter servers.

This Twitter user asked how Twitter knows what a user is doing in other tabs. Twitter said it will only check the article link on Twitter, not elsewhere.

What do you think about Twitter’s new feature? Sound off in the comments below.