Twitter reportedly explores the idea of a fake news button
See something on Twitter that may be false? Maybe an alternative fact?
The company is "exploring" a feature that would let you flag the tweet as containing "misleading, false, or harmful information," The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing two anonymous people familiar with the matter.
It remains to be seen if the feature will ever see the light of the day.
"We are not currently testing this nor do we have any current plans to ship it," a Twitter spokesperson told Mashable.
Twitter product managers and engineers, like those at other tech companies, often brainstorm and create features that never get implemented. Take, for example, Twitter's exploration of expanding tweets to more than 140 characters or an edit button.
Introducing a fake news button wouldn't be too difficult. Twitter already has a drop-down menu on each tweet where Twitter users can report a tweet as harassment, for example. According to the anonymous sources speaking to The Washington Post, the feature could appear in this menu.
Meanwhile, Facebook, Twitter's big competitor in the industry of sharing news on a social media platform, has taken the fight against fake news seriously.
Facebook's latest effort, announced this week, involves forbidding publishers to change the headline or image of an article. Facebook also rolled out a tool in March that cites third-party fact-checking organizations like Snopes and Politifact when a story shared on the platform potentially contains false information.
Twitter isn't naive to fake news being shared on the platform. Indeed, its new ad campaign involved someone sharing alternative facts related to climate change.
Topics Facebook Social Media X/Twitter
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
