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How will Twitter’s ‘Birdwatch’ feature fight misinformation?

Answer: By letting everyday users label it when they see it.

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There’s no denying that social media has a big misinformation problem. But no matter what these companies have done to try and curb it, it still hasn’t been enough.

Twitter is hoping to change that with a new feature called Birdwatch. Announced Monday, the feature is rolling out in a limited, pilot capacity for the time being. In the program, volunteer Twitter users will be able to add notes to tweets that they encounter which contain misinformation.  

In its current form, those notes will only be visible on a separate website, but the goal is to eventually have them appear on the main Twitter platform. Users interested in participating in the pilot must meet certain criteria, including having a verified phone number and email address and no history of violating Twitter’s policies.  

“We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding contact that people trust and find valuable,” Twitter Product Vice President Keith Coleman said in a company blog post.