Here's what Twitter plans to do about election result misinformation

Twitter is finally sharing the details of its plan to stop the spread of premature, unverified, or false election results.

In a series of tweets, Twitter expanded on its previous announcement that it would prohibit “premature claims of victory” on election night.

Twitter's first line of defense is to apply warning labels to tweets spreading misinformation. The company explained that it will “be prioritizing the presidential election and other highly contested races where there may be significant issues with misleading information.”

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Tweets and accounts eligible for the warning label include:

• Accounts with a "US 2020" label, which were assigned by Twitter to official candidates and their campaigns.

• U.S.-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers.

• Tweets that receive “significant engagement,” such as 25,000 likes or retweets.

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When a user tries to retweet election result misinformation, they will receive a prompt with a warning and link to more information. It is simply an extra step. Users can still retweet the labeled tweet if they’d like.

Twitter will consider the election results “official” when announced by at least two of the following news outlets: ABC News, AP, CBS News, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News and NBC News. The company described those seven outlets as “authoritative, national news outlets” with “dedicated, independent election decision desks.”

The company will also consider results to be legitimate when announced by state election officials.

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According to the company, “content inciting interference with the election, encouraging violent action or other physical harms” could require additional warnings or, where applicable, outright removal of the tweet.

Twitter has been preparing its platform for the election for months.

Over the summer, the company received blowback from conservatives after applying a fact-check label to a tweet from President Donald Trump concerning mail-in ballots. Twitter has also been preparing its users, via message prompts, for a long-night on election night -- and possibly beyond! -- as many mail-in ballots will need to be counted before a winner can be declared.