Twitter on Monday reminded its users that it will be taking steps to try and combat election misinformation, including premature declarations of victory by candidates.
Last month, Twitter announced a set of election-related rules and policies, including one that would flag tweets from candidates who prematurely declare victory in an election.
The company outlined what that would look like in a series of tweets on Monday, the day before Election Day. State officials have warned that because of the influx of mail-in ballots ahead of the election, it may take longer to count votes.
Twitter said it will be prioritizing the presidential election for tweets that “make claims about election results before they’re officially called.”
In one example, Twitter showed a tweet that is “sharing inaccurate information about the presidential race that contradicts official results and projections.” That example tweet had a label under it that reads: “Official sources called this election differently.”
In another example, a hypothetical tweet is “sharing inaccurate results about the presidential race before state officials or other news sources have made official projections.” That tweet had a label that read: “Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted.”
The labels would be put on accounts if it belongs to a 2020 candidate, if the account is U.S.-based and has more than 100,000 followers, or if they tweet has “significant engagement,” which is defined as 25,000 likes or 25,000 quote tweets or retweets, Twitter said.
If a user attempts to retweet a tweet that has been labeled with the election-related warning, they will be met with a prompt making it clear it violated the new policy and directing them to “credible information” before they are able to retweet it.
The company said it is considering a race “official” if announced by a state election official or it is called by two news outlets among ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, or NBC News.
