Twitter to Label Personal Accounts of Heads of State From Next Week
Twitter has announced to apply labels to the personal accounts of heads of state in several new countries from February 17, as it expands its policy on government-affiliated accounts.
New Delhi, Feb 12: Twitter has announced to apply labels to the personal accounts of heads of state in several new countries from February 17, as it expands its policy on government-affiliated accounts. The company will now add labels to verified accounts of foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders in 16 additional countries. #BanTwitterInIndia Trends on Twitter as Users Switch to Koo, Twitter's Alternative from India.
The move will provide people with context "so they can make informed decisions about what they see and how they engage on Twitter," the company said in a statement late on Thursday.
In August 2020, Twitter began applying labels to government officials' accounts in China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. The micro-blogging platform is now adding Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, beginning February 17.
"After receiving feedback on this initial action from a range of stakeholders on Wednesday, February 17, we will expand these labels to accounts from Group of Seven (G7) countries, and to a majority of countries that Twitter has attributed state-linked information operations to," Twitter informed.
"As the next phase of this project, we will work to apply additional labels on state-affiliated media accounts over the next several months, taking an iterative approach to ensure we capture all relevant accounts," it noted.
Twitter said it is also updating the label text to add more specificity to the government account labels by differentiating between individuals and institutions, and expanding labels to the personal accounts of heads of state to give people on Twitter additional context. Twitter permanently banned former US President Donald Trump in January for inciting the deadly attack on the Capitol.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 12, 2021 11:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).