Twitter has announced the rollout of new labels and restrictions on Russian state-affiliated media websites.
The new labels will appear prominently above any links from sites that Twitter has classed as Russian state-affiliated media and contain the message: โStay informed. This Tweet links to a Russia state-affiliated media website.โ
The labels will also contain a โFind out moreโ link which will presumably link to Twitterโs Help Center article on government and state-affiliated media account labels.
In an example shared by Twitterโs Head of Site Integrity, the new label is shown above an article from Russia Today (RT).
In addition to labeling content from these websites, Twitter will โsignificantly reduce the circulationโ of content that is slapped with these labels. According to Twitterโs Help Center article on state-affiliated media, this reduced circulation includes removing recommendations and amplification of tweets and accounts that have these labels.
Roth added that Twitter will be rolling out labels to other state-affiliated media outlets in the coming weeks.
In its Help Center article about these labels, Twitter explains that โstate-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution and that โaccounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their senior staff may be labeled.โ
The article adds that โstate-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.โ
These state-affiliated media labels are currently applied to accounts from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
โSince the invasion, weโve seen more than 45,000 Tweets a day sharing links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets,โ Roth tweeted. โWhile weโve labeled the accounts of hundreds of global state media outlets for years, Tweets sharing their content lacked visible context.โ
Twitterโs introduction of these labels follows European officials urging Big Tech to deplatform Russian state media and several tech platforms restricting and demonetizing Russian state-affiliated media.
Twitterโs previous labeling of other types of content has been controversial with the tech giant previously labeling clipped videos as โmanipulated media,โ using labels to hide โdisputedโ coronavirus claims, and labeling tweets from government officials.
However, Roth claimed that the labels โadd helpful context to conversations around some of the most critical issues, such as COVID-19 and elections happening around the world.โ
Similar labels have been pushed by the Russian tech giant Yandex which now tells Russian users who search for news about Russiaโs invasion of Ukraine that โsome material on the internet may contain inaccurate information.โ