Twitter reveals plans for misleading tweets about US election results amid fears posts could cause 'significant issues'

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Twitter says it will label tweets that make misleading claims about the US election results.

The plans show how the company aims to combat false claims of victory and other misinformation that could spread before official results are announced.

The flag is similar to the one that has already been applied to posts that spread misinformation about Covid-19, mail-in voting, or other high-profile topics that have attracted substantial false reporting.

When a tweet is flagged with that feature, the post itself will remain live. But it will have a small message underneath it, indicating that it could be false. “Official sources called this election differently”, one reads, while another says that “official sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted”.

If someone tries to retweet such a post, they will be encouraged to look at information about the official results. But they will still be able to quote tweet it if they like, and the post will remain visible to their followers when they do.

Twitter said that it could still take down some posts, but suggested that such an action would be rare. “If we see content inciting interference with the election, encouraging violent action or other physical harms, we may take additional measures, such as adding a warning or requiring the removal of Tweets,” the company said in a series of posts.

They will apply to all profiles that labeled as candidates in the US election, which includes Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and their official campaign accounts.

Other large US-based accounts will be covered by the rules, which will apply to any post from a profile with more than 100,000 followers, or which has had more than 25,000 retweets.

The presidential election “and other highly contested races where there may be significant issues with misleading information” will be prioritised by Twitter when it is looking for posts that should be removed, it said.

It also made clear when it would consider a result to be “official”. To do so, the result will either have to be announced by a state election official, or those from a select number of national news outlets.

Twitter noted that the new rules come during an “unusual election”, where “restrictions in response to COVID-19 have led to historically high numbers of mail-in ballots, which may result in some state results not being resolved on election night”.

It was in that context it had decided to add extra “context”, it said. “We believe this is the right thing to do to protect the integrity of the conversation around the election while counting is ongoing and before results are announced by state authorities.”

The new rules will begin on election night and run until the inauguration.