The news has just popped that just like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter will start putting labels on the accounts of state-affiliated and government officials as well. These labels are likely to be applied to the accounts of officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and France. These labels will be of great help for the users to believe in the tweets and make decisions. Twitter won’t label the personal accounts of states’ heads as they already have enough recognition, public awareness, and media attention.
When it comes to conversations with government and state-affiliated media accounts on Twitter, we’re helping to make the experience more transparent.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) August 6, 2020
We'll now use two distinct profile labels for these types of accounts, so you can easily identify them and their Tweets. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/JW67o422MO
Moreover, the tweets from state-affiliated media accounts will also be stopped from being recommended. State-affiliated accounts include government outlets that control a production or distribution and have direct/indirect political pressure. The outlets that are funded by the government are excluded from the category of state-affiliated accounts.
Stated-affiliated accounts were already restricted from purchasing Twitter ads, and Twitter now decides to prevent these outlets from amplifying onto the search bar, notifications and timelines.
Facebook and YouTube were the first two social media platforms to introduce labeling policy back in 2018. Twitter deliberately follows the footsteps to avoid various consequences.
