Twitter mulls letting users flag fake news, offensive content

Victor Barreiro Jr.

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Twitter mulls letting users flag fake news, offensive content

AFP

The development of the flagging tool is reportedly moving slowly partly due to concerns that it can be manipulated or gamed

MANILA, Philippines – Twitter is reportedly looking into allowing its users to flag fake news and offensive content, a Washington Post report said Thursday, June 29 (Friday, June 30, Manila time).

According to two people who spoke to the news site on condition of anonymity, the flagging feature – said to be a protoype which may not actually be released – could potentially look like a tab appearing in a drop-down menu on tweets.

Twitter spokeswoman Emily Horne said, “There are no current plans to launch any type of product along these lines.” She also did not comment as to whether such a feature was in testing.  

The development of the flagging tool is also reportedly moving slowly partly due to concerns that it can be manipulated or gamed like other aspects of Twitter.

While Twitter currently lags behind Facebook in fighting fake news or extremist and otherwise offensive content, Colin Crowell, the company’s vice president for policy, said earlier this month Twitter was “working hard to detect spammy behaviors” such as automated accounts that try to manipulate trending topics. The company is also putting efforts into machine learning to help detect such behavior. 

Twitter has also pledged to work to fight terror content alongside Facebook, Microsoft, and YouTube. – Rappler.com

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Victor Barreiro Jr.

Victor Barreiro Jr is part of Rappler's Central Desk. An avid patron of role-playing games and science fiction and fantasy shows, he also yearns to do good in the world, and hopes his work with Rappler helps to increase the good that's out there.