Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
World

Twitter says it flagged 300,000 'misleading' tweets during US elections

A cell phone displays post from Donald Trump masked with warnings imposed by Twitter, the president's go-to communication tool AFP/File

The social network said the labels were issued between 27 October and 11 November, one week before and after the US presidential election on 3 November -- which Democrat Joe Biden won over incumbent Donald Trump.

Of the 300,000 flagged tweets, 456 were covered over by a warning message and had engagement features limited -- users could not like, retweet or reply to the posts, said Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust and safety, in a blog post.

'Misleading' tweets

She estimated that 74 percent of people who saw the problematic tweets did so after they had been labeled as misleading or flagged with a warning message, and sharing of the posts, as a result, declined by about 29 percent.

During the election period, Twitter posted messages on American users' pages which were seen 389 million times that "reminded people that election results were likely to be delayed, and that voting by mail is safe and legitimate," Gadde added.

Nearly half of Trump's tweets were flagged by the platform in the days following the election, as the president claimed, without evidence, that he had won, and that the process had been tainted by massive fraud.

(with AFP)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.