An app researcher may have revealed a Twitter tool that would allow moderators to debate over what is, or isn’t misinformation.
Jane Manchun Wong has posted a screenshot of what appears to be an unreleased Twitter tool that allows moderators to flag tweets that reportedly contain “misinformation,” and then vote on whether they are “misleading.” She claimed in an August 4 tweet:
“Twitter is working on a moderation tool to monitor misinformations on Twitter[.]
“Moderators can flag tweets, vote on whether it is misleading, and add a note about it[.]
“(I made up my own note to show what it currently looks like)[.]”
Reclaim the Net commented that "It’s unclear when or if this tool will ever be released and how such a tool could potentially affect tweets once they’ve been flagged and voted on as 'harmfully misleading.'"
This is not the first time that screenshots have emerged that claim to expose Twitter’s inner workings.
Twitter was rocked by a massive “security incident” in mid-July, and in its wake, purported blacklisting tools may have been exposed.
Thanks to Vice Motherboard’s reporting, screenshots revealed various buttons Twitter moderators appear to have access to, including: “Trends Blacklist” and “Search Blacklist.” Critics have asked if this is proof Twitter indeed has the capability to shadowban users.
Twitter has been very public in recent months about how it reserves the right to delete content from the platform. Twitter’s latest Terms of Service indeed state that “We may also remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services, limit distribution or visibility of any Content on the service, suspend or terminate users, and reclaim usernames without liability to you.”
Jane Manchun Wong has made headlines before as a reverse engineer who exposes the inner workings of various Big Tech companies.
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