In light of Russia’s military conflict with Ukraine, Twitter on Monday announced new measures to prevent the spread of disinformation related to the Russian government, TechCrunch reported.
The company will start adding tags to tweets that contain links to Russian state-linked media agencies, indicating their affiliations. The labels have an orange exclamation point warning Twitter users to “stay informed.”
Twitter will also begin reducing the visibility of Russian state-linked media on the platform, reducing their ability to reach large audiences.
Changes to tweets linked to the Russian government will roll out immediately. Twitter said it plans to add similar tags to other “state-related media accounts” in the coming weeks.
We understand and take our role seriously when people are looking for credible information on Twitter about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s director of site integrity, said in a tweet. Our product should make it easy to understand who is behind what you’re seeing and what their motivations and intentions are.
Today, we’re adding labels to Tweets that share links to Russian state-affiliated media websites and are taking steps to significantly reduce the circulation of this content on Twitter.
We’ll roll out these labels to other state-affiliated media outlets in the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/57Dycmn8lx
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) February 28, 2022
Twitter started labeling state-controlled media accounts two years ago, but those labels appeared on the accounts’ profile pages and weren’t as obvious as the labels on the tweets themselves. The company does not allow ads from state-affiliated media accounts.
Roth added that since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine a few days ago, the company has seen more than 45,000 tweets a day linking to agencies linked to the Russian government.
Roth said the new hashtags are a way to “add useful context” to conversations on Twitter, in line with the company’s efforts to tweet about global elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.