Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Twitter said Thursday that it will label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in the U.S. election or other civic processes.
Among the tweets that could be subject to removal or labeling starting next week are any tweets claiming victory before official election results, according to a Twitter Safety blog. The new policy also includes removing or labeling tweets that incite unlawful conduct to prevent peaceful transition of power.
Disputed claims that may undermine confidence in the process itself, such as unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering or vote tallying, will also be labeled or removed, the blog said.
Other tweets that the policy could impact include tweets of false or misleading information to confuse voters about the civic process, which also includes censuses and ballot initiatives, according to the blog.
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"This policy will take effect in one week on Thursday, September 17, 2020," the Twitter Safety blog said. "We will not permit our service to be abused around civic processes, most importantly elections. Any attempt to do so -- both foreign and domestic -- will be met with strict enforcement of our rules, which are applied equally and judiciously for everyone."
The move is an expansion of its existing Civil Integrity Policy under which it already provided more context to misleading information that could confuse voters about the election process. Under the update, Twitter Safety said tweets that are labeled will have reduced visibility across the service.
Last week Facebook similarly said that it would take steps to remove posts that contain misinformation that could suppress the vote. The social media company also said that it would not accept political ads in the final week of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Still, President Donald Trump has already used social media to make unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots lead to fraud.
