In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Twitter said it reviewed its "Twitter Safety" policies regarding messages that may violate its content rules.
According to Fox News, the popular microblogging platform will focus on "context, not fact-checking" in determining whether a tweet seems to violate its policies.
People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw September 27, 2013.
Twitter also acknowledges opinions that the company should not regulate the truthfulness over tweets, but instead provide information to aid people in deciding on cases where the content of a tweet is being questioned.
There’s been a lot of conversation around Twitter’s enforcement actions recently. We want to take a step back and share the principles we use to empower healthy public conversation through our product, policies, and enforcement... — Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 3, 2020
These messages came nearly a week after Twitter flagged a message posted by President Donald Trump that the message "violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence." "We want to take a step back and share the principles we use to empower healthy public conversation through our product, policies, and enforcement," Twitter said in a tweet. The thread of messages also included a list of CEO Jack Dorsey posting about the company's principles. Among these principles are to decrease the risks for harm, harmful bias, and incentives as well as reliance on content removal. It also values increasing diverse perspectives and public accountability.
Twitter’s health principles: 1⃣Decrease potential for likely harm 2⃣Decrease harmful bias & incentives 3⃣Decrease reliance on content removal 4⃣Increase diverse perspectives 5⃣Increase public accountability — Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 3, 2020
The social media company also stood by its decision to forbid all political ads, its policy over public-interest notifications, as well as a measure to let people decide who can reply to their tweets. The company also highlighted how these principles shape its efforts against misleading information. Thus, it uses feedback from the people we serve. Last year, Twitter said its consultation with the public guided how it would work since.
Twitter's squabble with Trump
Last week, President Trump issued an executive order that aims to curb legal protections that currently protect social media companies like Twitter from legal charges. Days after Trump's order, Twitter issued a series of messages Tuesday night about how it will handle alleged rule-breaking messages. After his message was flagged by Twitter, Trump hit back at the company the next day, posting the same message using the official White House account as well as Trump's personal account.
The president said he can not watch the events occur to Minneapolis, which he called "a great American City." He also noted that "a total lack of leadership" led to this violence and social instability. He also noted that he told Governor Tim Walz that "the Military is with him all the way."
While Trump assured that the government will regain the social control, he said that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," which critics said was like the U.S. era of racial segregation.
However, Twitter denies that it attempts to address all misinformation, but instead "prioritize based on the highest potential for harm, focusing on manipulated media, civic integrity, and COVID-19. Likelihood, severity, and type of potential harm - along with reach and scale - factor into this."
Meanwhile, Twitter wrote in another message how people could read and discuss what the leaders say, "even if they violate our rules." It then refers to an October post about "public interest notice" that further outlines the company policies.
When we label Tweets we link to Twitter conversation that shows three things for context: 1⃣Factual statements (e.g. “ballots are only being sent to registered voters”) 2⃣Counterpoint opinions & perspectives 3⃣Ongoing public conversation around the issuehttps://t.co/gSPzaEZ1Fk — Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 3, 2020
Twitter then agreed to "only add descriptive text that is reflective of the existing public conversation to let people determine their own viewpoints."
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