Twitter launches pilot test in which users verify information

San Francisco, Jan 25 (efe-epa).- Twitter launched a pilot test Monday in the United States in which users of the social network can verify the information others share and add comments that deny it or provide context.

Project “Birdwatch,” will for the moment will only work on a page different from Twitter, so that only participants in the pilot test can carry out verifications and see comments added by other verifiers.

The company justified this decision as a way to ensure that the system generates context that people would find “useful and appropriate” and, if results are satisfactory, would proceed in the future to fully integrate it into Twitter

Initially, only about 1,000 people have received approval to act as verifiers, although this figure could rise to 100,000, the company said in a statement.

The San Francisco firm said verification by users themselves would allow them to detect and remedy the spread of false information more quickly and that people would appreciate the task being done by the community rather than Twitter employees.

Twitter said it intends to extend the system globally in the future if objectives are met.

The company, headed by Jack Dorsey is taking increasingly drastic measures on the social network’s moderation and content suppression, which saw the permanent suspension of the former US President Donald Trump’s account on Jan. 8, when he was still in office.

That movement culminated in 2020, in which false information about the COVID-19 pandemic, the US election and racial tensions in the country triggered moderation efforts by Twitter. This earned the company accusations of censorship and opened a debate around the power of social media and freedom of expression. EFE-EPA

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