Twitter Expands Policy to Catch More Election Misinformation

(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. is expanding its “civic integrity” policy to try to prevent more misinformation and confusion around voting and election results ahead of the 2020 U.S. election.

Twitter already has a policy about misleading or confusing voting information and has enforced it against President Donald Trump multiple times for posts about mail-in ballots. The company labeled tweets from Trump last week for suggesting people should vote twice.

The new policy is more specific, not just covering misleading information about how to vote, but also information that tries to undermine election results, including unverified suggestions that results are rigged, a Twitter spokesperson said. Misleading posts about Election Day results are also a violation.

In a blog post, Twitter said it will label or remove these offending posts beginning Sept. 17. It’s unclear when a post will merit removal versus a label, and a spokesperson said that distinction will be made based on the post’s ability to cause “harm,” and how explicit the misleading information is.

“The goal is to further protect against content that could suppress the vote and help stop the spread of harmful misinformation that could compromise the integrity of an election or other civic process,” Twitter wrote.

Twitter was early in enforcing a voting misinformation policy against Trump in May, and the president responded by signing an executive order to limit liability protections for social-media companies.

Facebook has similar policies around misleading voting information, but the company labels all posts that discuss the voting process, not just false ones, making it difficult to determine when a post is in violation.

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