Twitter Misinformation Reporting Feature Axed by X: What’s Next?

In a surprising move, X, (Formerly Twitter), has made a significant alteration to its platform by eliminating the option for users to report tweets that are deemed to contain misleading information. This decision comes at a critical time, as Australia gears up for a crucial referendum on the establishment of an Indigenous voice in parliament in the country.

Since the year 2021, users of X in various countries, such as the United States, Australia, and South Korea, have been granted the ability to flag tweets that they suspect to contain misleading information. These flagged tweets are then reviewed by the company’s staff, as part of a distinct process from the existing mechanisms in place to report instances of abuse or hate speech.

Since August 2021, the function has been made available in the United States, Australia, and South Korea. At the beginning of 2022, it was rolled out to Brazil, the Philippines, and Spain. The management of the company at the time recognized the significance of having such a tool available during election seasons. However, according to the digital platforms watchdog group Reset Australia, this capability has since been deleted from those regions within the past week or two.

Reset Australia said in an open letter released on Wednesday that it was “extremely concerning” that the tool had been removed a few weeks before the referendum on giving Indigenous people a voice in parliament. If it had been done so on purpose, it would have been “a disastrous point in time for Australia’s electoral integrity”.

When asked for a response, X automatically replied, “Busy now.” Kindly come back later.

Elon Musk, the owner of the website, has made fighting against the censorship of material on platforms a central tenet of his rationale for seizing control of Twitter.

Last week, correspondence between the Australian Electoral Commission and X highlighted the commission’s displeasure at X’s inability to take action to delete posts that incited violence against its personnel and promoted falsehoods about the electoral process.

The AEC commissioner, Tom Rogers, stated that it had been difficult to remove veiled threats against workers that had been posted on social media sites. This was true regardless of which platform the threats had been placed on.

“There is an avenue that still exists for the AEC to refer content to X, and we utilize it. However, we have a high threshold for matters we report to social media platforms and are realistic about it. The AEC understands the responsiveness of the AEC on the platform is always going to be swifter and likely more effective in countering incorrect claims regarding the electoral process than the actions of platforms”, the spokesperson said.

The spokesman indicated that the level of responsiveness from all social media platforms, not only X, has changed over the course of the previous year.

“There are matters pertaining to what we would consider inciting violence, or veiled threats, that we believe should be actioned. This sometimes occurs but has not always been the case.”

Twitter highlighted its community notes feature as one way it was battling misinformation in a May report to the digital platforms lobby group Digi on its compliance with the voluntary industry misinformation and disinformation code. This feature allowed users to fact-check a tweet and, if enough users approved it, add it to the tweet as additional context.

“We know that misleading information is complex, evolving, and sometimes cloaked behind questions or opinions,” the company said. “To ensure that people are better informed on Twitter we launched Community Notes, our approach to offering context and surfacing credible information.

“As Community Notes rapidly evolve on the platform, within Twitter, and in public, this product presents a profound shift for our company and people who use our service.

“It is a priority area of development, grounded in more than a decade and a half of Twitter, the platform and content moderation experiments, policies, and products. It is also grounded in ongoing research, evaluation, and consultation.”

The decision arises due to the federal government’s response to mounting opposition pressure to abandon preliminary legislation that would confer authority upon the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to enforce the code on various platforms.

Check Out: Twitter Ranks as Worst Social Media for Climate Change Misinformation.