Twitter Vows to Crack Down on Election Result Misinformation

There is nothing normal about 2020: a global pandemic, deadly wildfires, Harry and Meghan quitting the royal family, murder hornets. Not to mention a tense presidential election expected to culminate sometime this week with the counting of record numbers of votes.

Aytac Unal/Getty Images via PC Mag

Due to high volumes of mail-in ballots, some state results will not be resolved on election night, so social networks are taking extra precautions to curb misinformation.

"We are taking additional steps to provide context when results have not been officially called," Twitter wrote in a Monday blog update. "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."

Now through Inauguration Day, the company will label some tweets that "make claims about election results"—prioritizing the presidential ticket and other highly contested races "where there may be significant issues with misleading information," Twitter said.

All accounts with US 2020 candidate labels (including US 2020 Presidential candidate and campaign accounts) are eligible for labeling, as are US-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers and tweets that have more than 25,000 likes, quote tweets, or retweets.

A handful of news outlets—ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, National Election Pool, NBC News, Reuters—are exempt from Twitter's stamp of disapproval.

Now through Inauguration Day, the company will label some tweets that "make claims about election results"—prioritizing the presidential ticket and other highly contested races "where there may be significant issues with misleading information," Twitter said.

All accounts with US 2020 candidate labels (including US 2020 Presidential candidate and campaign accounts) are eligible for labeling, as are US-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers and tweets that have more than 25,000 likes, quote tweets, or retweets.

A handful of news outlets—ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, National Election Pool, NBC News, Reuters—are exempt from Twitter's stamp of disapproval.

The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2020