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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Twitter on Monday outlined a plan for placing warning labels on tweets from U.S. election candidates and campaigns that claim victory in advance of official results.
The move comes as the social network braces for what it has called an unusual election due to a high number of mail-in ballots that may cause a delay in final results.
Beginning on election night through the inauguration, Twitter said it would place warning labels such as "official sources called this election differently," or "official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted."
U.S.-based accounts with over 100,000 followers and a significant engagement will also be considered for labeling, Twitter said.
Social media companies are under pressure to combat election-related misinformation and prepare for the possibility of violence or poll place intimidation around the November vote.
In an updated blog, the company said it would consider state election officials and national news outlets such as ABC News, Associated Press, CNN and Fox News that have independent election decision desks as official sources for results.
Their official Twitter accounts will be exempted from labeling, the company said.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Elizabeth Culliford; editing by Patrick Graham and Anil D'Silva)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020
2020 Election: Increased mail-in voting, COVID-19, and a variety of state-by-state election formats contribute to a unique 2020 election. As a result, it is likely that many close House and Senate races, as well as the presidency, will not be called on Nov. 3. States may also shift in outcome in the days or weeks following the election — an expected change experts have warned about as results are returned. While human error happens, both mail-in and in-person voting have extremely low rates of fraud. The state of Utah has used vote-by-mail since 2012. It has safeguards in place to make sure every ballot it receives is legitimate.
