More Misinformation Labels Could Be Coming to Twitter

Twitter reportedly is working on adding three new misinformation labels in an attempt to curb the spread of fake news. 

According to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, the three new labels would include "Get the latest," "Stay Informed," and "Misleading." Wong tweeted a screenshot of the label examples she found on Monday. 

The labels also would include "Find out more" links, which presumably would take the user either to information on why the tweet was flagged or a reputable source on the topic. 

While there’s little information other than what Wong shared in her experiment, it looks like the new labels are meant to help slow the spread of misinformation and fake news on the platform. 

Twitter hasn’t officially confirmed the new labels or when users might see them on the platform, but Lifewire reached out to the social network and has not received a response as of this writing. 

The platform has been expanding its labeling system since it introduced the feature to tweets a few years ago. Right now, Twitter shows a label for tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media, Tweets that may contain misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines, as well as tweets that have any disputed or unverified claims, among other instances. 

Labels always appear beneath a tweet. Depending on the context of the tweet and the label, they may also include a link to public information, curated content, or Twitter’s official rules. 

Studies show that fact-checking labels like Twitter’s do work, but only when used in a timely matter. According to a study from earlier this year called Timing Matters When Correcting Fake News, labels shown to people after reading a headline made the fact that a headline was false slightly more memorable and reduced people’s misclassification of those headlines by 25.3%.