Broadband Roundup: Twitter Flags Misinformation, Facebook Promotes WHO, Tulsi Looses to Google

Twitter Site Integrity Head Yoel Roth told Ari Shapiro of NPR in an interview that Twitter will flag “misleading” or “harmful” content with blue exclamation marks.

Roth said altered videos or media that cause harm or “interfere with somebody’s ability to exercise their fundamental rights” – i.e., deepfakes – would be in violation of Twitter’s terms of service and therefore the user would technically be obligated to remove the material.

However, Twitter knows this is “unlikely” that such users will actually take these materials off the platform. Therefore, the flagged content lets users know that the information is deceptive or unreliable.

“The challenge for us as a technology company is how to create a product that helps you find accurate, credible information while also ensuring that people do have the ability to express themselves freely on issues that they care about,” said Roth.

Facebook attempting to clamp down on coronavirus misinformation

As coronavirus fears mount and wrongdoers capitalize on overly worried internet users through misinformation and bad products, Facebook is proactively attempting to interject itself in the dialogue to tamp down on  the spread of false information, reports Michael Grothaus for Fast Company.

Additionally, the World Health Organization can now advertise for free on Facebook.

The “ad-giveaway comes after the company announced in January that it will remove posts with coronavirus misinformation and last month said it is banning ads that promise to prevent or cure the virus,” writes Grothaus.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, a “pop-up that directs you to the World Health Organization or your local health authority for the latest information,” will show up for users searching coronavirus, reports Grothaus.

Tulsi Gabbard looses lawsuit again Google over ‘election manipulation’

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, lost a lawsuit she filed last July with Google, claiming that the company engaged in “election manipulation,” reports Rachel Sandler for Forbes.

Gabbard’s campaign advertising account was frozen because one of Google’s “automated systems detected ‘unusual’ activity and froze the account,” writes Sandler.

A federal judge sided with Google this week because a private company is “not a state actor beholden to the First Amendment,” reports Sandler.