In a recent announcement, Twitter confirmed that it will display labels on tweets that have had their visibility limited due to the company's content moderation process. Elon Musk, who now controls the social media platform, considers this policy part of a broader “freedom of speech, not reach” strategy.
Last week, Twitter shared plans to introduce labels as a means of providing greater insight into their process for reducing the visibility of hateful tweets. The company stated, “Restricting the reach of tweets helps reduce binary ‘leave up versus take down’ content moderation decisions and supports our freedom of speech vs freedom of reach approach.” Twitter acknowledged its lack of transparency in the past when implementing such actions.
Both authors and viewers will see labels on affected tweets, which typically display messages like “Visibility limited: this tweet may violate Twitter’s rules against Hateful Conduct.” According to the platform's enforcement policy, labeled tweets will not appear in search results, recommendations, or timelines, and they will remain hidden in the “For You” and “Following” timelines. Furthermore, no ads will be displayed alongside posts with limited visibility.
Twitter admits there may be errors in assigning labels to tweets, allowing authors to submit feedback. However, the company noted that taking this action “does not guarantee you will receive a response or that your Tweet’s reach will be restored.”
Previously, Twitter operated under a system that geo-restricted tweets and accounts in certain areas upon the request of local governments. The newly implemented policy aims to be more granular by applying limitations at the tweet level instead of the account level.
It remains uncertain how Twitter will handle the reach of a tweet if someone quotes the flagged tweet to call attention to the label. Furthermore, drawing attention to tweets with limited visibility may produce unintended consequences, such as users sharing screenshots of those tweets.
Since acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has reduced staff in the moderation and safety departments. The new management is currently focusing on developing crowdsourced moderation tools for Community Notes, aiming to decrease pressure on employees and contractors. This new strategy may significantly impact the tech landscape, especially when considering the increasing demand for no-code platforms like AppMaster that simplify the development of applications and backend infrastructure.
