Twitter is reviving and improving its election misinformation strategy ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. The social network has restarted the enforcement of its civic integrity policy in preparation for the vote, with some upgrades to follow this year. First, it will avoid recommending misleading tweets through notifications — disinformation may not be as widespread as it used to be. The company is also considering using the method for “other surfaces.”
You should also see redesigned fact-checking tabs that are more motivating to read. Twitter will test these tags for the first time in late 2021.
Other efforts will be more familiar. You’ve seen labels for any gubernatorial, House or Senate candidate eligible to vote in the general election. You can expect “prebunks” to fight back against false claims before they become a hit. You’ll find a dedicated U.S. elections tab in Explore, as well as state-specific hubs. Twitter also plans to strengthen protections for candidates, with “more sophisticated” detection of suspicious activity, and more login protections and faster account recovery in the worst-case scenario.
These are not dramatic changes from previous elections, including elections outside the United States, to Twitter’s approach. It’s clear, however, that the company is bracing for trouble given the fallout in 2020. The question is whether this is enough. Critics have warned that social media companies’ anti-misinformation efforts during the last election were flawed, and that tweaks to recommendations and labels aren’t guaranteed to address them.
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