Twitter tests labels, community moderation for 'lies' by public figures

Twitter Incorporation is testing a new community moderation approach that would enable users to identify misleading information posted by politicians and public figures and add brightly coloured labels under those tweets.

Media reports revealed the social media platform's documents showing a mockup of the new approach were accessible on a publicly available website, although it did not identify the site.

The company said that the leaked illustrations showed one possible iteration of a new approach to combat misinformation.

"This is a design mockup for one option that would involve community feedback. Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it."

However, according to a spokesperson, the project was in the early stages and not currently staffed.

Twitter users would earn points and badges for rating "harmfully misleading" content.

The tech giant and along with other social media companies are under intense pressure to stem lies and misinformation on their platforms.

Twitter announced in the summer that it would label and de-emphasize tweets that broke its rules but came from important public figures like politicians. But it has not yet done so for any tweets.

The company also banned political ads in the fall and said earlier this month that it would apply "false" warning labels to tweets containing synthetic or deceptively edited forms of media and remove any that are likely to cause harm.

The Twitter spokesman said the company would likely label Bloomberg's tweet under the new policy on synthetic and deceptively edited media, which is set to come into effect on March 5.