News Analysis India

Tag: Twitter

  • Twitter plans to relaunch verification program next year

    Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) on Tuesday released plans for its new policy on how people are “verified” on the site, an area the company has long promised to revamp to address confusion and criticisms over the blue check-mark badges it uses to authenticate the identity of prominent accounts.

    html that it plans to relaunch its verification program, including a new public application process, in early 2021. It said a public feedback period for the new policy would open on Tuesday and run until Dec. 8.

    Twitter said it paused public submissions for verification in 2017 after hearing feedback that the program “felt arbitrary and confusing to many people.” It said at the time the check mark was being confused with “an endorsement or an indicator of importance.”

    A year later, Twitter said it was putting fixes to the verification program on the back burner to focus on issues like election integrity, though it has continued to verify some accounts, such as medical experts tweeting about COVID-19 this year.

    “Since then, we haven’t been clear about who can become verified and when, why an account might be unverified, or what it means to be verified,” Twitter said in the Tuesday blog post.

    Twitter said it also may verify accounts that meet other standards such as being one of the top-followed accounts in the user’s country and having “off-Twitter notability,” which could be assessed through Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) search trends, Wikipedia references or coverage in news outlets.

    The company said it may cut the blue badge from accounts that severely or repeatedly violate rules, such as its policies on hateful conduct, civic integrity or glorification of violence. But it said these removals would not be automatic and would be assessed case by case.

    Twitter also released proposed grounds for denying verification, for example, accounts that have been locked out for violating rules in the last six months or accounts of individuals associated with hateful content or who have been found to have committed “gross human rights violations.”

  • Twitter now warns you before liking a tweet labeled for misinformation

    The US election may be all but over, but social media networks are still trying to fight rampant misinformation spreading on their platforms. Twitter today revealed that it will warn users if they try to so much as like a tweet that contains information believed to be misleading.

    Previously, the company had applied such labels when users try to retweet disputed information or, say, an article they haven’t actually read. These moves were effective in reducing the spread of misleading information by 29%, according to Twitter, so it’s clear the labels do make a difference.

    The company is now simply taking it a step further by warning you when you like tweets with misinformation too. While the move is not likely to have quite the same impact as preventing retweets of potentially false information, it’s not uncommon to see such tweets with thousands of likes.

    These arguably have the effect of adding a sense of validity to a tweet, even if they have a prominent misinformation label. Reducing the number of likes handed out by people not thinking critically about potential misinformation could very well be a good thing.

  • UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel Defended By Senior Conservatives Amid ‘bullying’ Claims

    As per media reports, the Britsih interior minister is likely to not get sacked by Johnson and the findings of the assessment will be published soon.  According to several Britsih media outlets, Patel was found to have not only failed to meet the requirement of treating the civil standards with respect and considerations but there are instances of bullying. While senior Conservatives are backing Patel, its main opposition, the Labour accused Johnson of attempting to “cover-up” after it emerged that the fact-finding report on Patel will be kept away from the public. 

    Meanwhile, as per the Associated Press Sir Alex Allen has concluded that home secretary has “not always met the high standards of the code in treating civil servants with respect” and that “instances would meet the definition of bullying”. The UK PM’s ministerial standards adviser was also quoted by the newspaper saying that “to that extent behaviour has been in breach of the ministerial code even if unintentional.” Even though British ministers have to resign after breaching code of conduct, Johnson will reportedly ask Patel to apologise and stress on ‘unintentional’ part.

  • Dream11 IPL 2020 Team Tweeted About The Most Revealed By Twitter India & It Is NOT Mumbai

    The Mumbai franchise beat Delhi in the final of the Dream11 IPL 2020 to secure a record fifth IPL title. Rohit Sharma’s side was one of the most consistent teams of the tournament as they played brilliant cricket throughout the competition to etch their name on the Dream11 IPL 2020 trophy. The Men in Blue, who were crowned the Dream11 IPL 2020 champions, failed to replicate the same level of dominance on Twitter. 

    In fact, their arch-rivals Chennai who had an awful Dream11 IPL 2020 campaign, became the most tweeted team during the course of the tournament played in the UAE, as reported by Twitter India. This was the first time that the Chennai IPL team failed to make it to the playoffs of the cash-rich league as they ended up at the seventh position on the points table. However, the Yellow Army’s dismal performances didn’t affect their popularity as their name was seemingly on everyone’s minds on Twitter.Moreover, what’s surprising is that Mumbai aren’t even the second most tweeted team as Virat Kohli’s Bangalore beat Rohit Sharma’s side to become the second most tweeted team during Dream11 IPL 2020. Chennai and Bangalore are followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi.

  • Kejriwal and Pramod Sawant ‘tweeter war’ on pollution issue

    The social media war has erupted between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Goa CM Pramod Sawant over the issue of pollution. In fact, due to the stubble burning in Punjab, air pollution is being seen in many parts of North India including Delhi-NCR. On this, Arvind Kejriwal had targeted the BJP government in support of the protest on the issue of environment in Goa, after which Pramod Sawant has retaliated by attacking Kejriwal.

    CM Kejriwal tweeted, ‘Dr. Pramod Sawant, it is not a matter of pollution of Delhi vs. pollution of Goa. Both Delhi and Goa are dear to me. We are all one country. We will all work together to ensure that pollution does not remain in both Delhi and Goa. ‘

    In retaliation, Pramod Sawant tweeted and wrote, “We are making sure that there is no pollution in Goa.” Our government will ensure that the state remains pollution free. I am sure that the people of Delhi also want the same for their beautiful state.

    After this CM Kejriwal tweeted another. He wrote, you do not need to listen to my advice, but please listen to the voice of Goans. Can’t the Goans have something to say in their state? Is the problem of the center more important than the voice of the residents of Goa.

  • Twitter, Facebook Flag Donald Trump’s Post Questioning Supreme Court’s Voting Decision

    In the hours just before US Election 2020, Twitter and Facebook flagged a post by US President Donald Trump in which he calls Supreme Court’s decision on voting in Pennsylvania “very dangerous” and claims about potential violence. US Apex Court just last week had permitted to extend the deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots during November 3 in Pennsylvania and North Carolina states that can contribute to Trump’s re-election. This decision by the court let stand a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received up to three days later to be counted. 

    However, this angered the Republican leader who has repeatedly questioned the integrity of mail-in ballots and recently indicated that he is readying his lawyers for November 3. Trump took to his social media accounts and baselessly claimed that the decision by Supreme Court is “very dangerous one” and that it will lead to “rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine” US laws. He added, “It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”

    But Twitter and Facebook quickly flagged the post on their respective platforms to prevent the spread of misinformation of baseless claims to spread like wildfire. While Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook attached a link about voting information and said the mail-in or in-person voting is safe in the US, Jack Dorsey’s Twitter said that Trump’s post shows “disputed content” and that it “might be misleading”. These actions by social media websites came in line with various measures taken to ensure the safety of US citizens and maintaining peace just hours before the election.