Twitter Preparing To Tackle Misinformation With Birdwatch Ahead Of US Midterms — But Is It Missing A Beat Globally?

Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher, highlighted how false narratives are spread on Twitter Inc. TWTR, saying that the social media platform “is still a great place to spread misinformation" and target audiences outside the U.S.

What Happened: Wong tweeted about the geographical limitations of Birdwatch, Twitter's community-driven program that was launched to reduce the spread of misinformation on the platform. The feature enables users to identify information in tweets they believe are misleading and write notes that provide additional context. 

Wong shared a screenshot along with her tweet.

Since @Birdwatch is US-only, Twitter is still a great place to spread misinformation targeting audience outside of the US
I mean what’s even the incentive to expand it globally when this is enough to show the Congress “Here, we have put efforts to protect our democracy” https://t.co/xhi8Qhtg1B

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 16, 2022

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Twitter's VP Product Keith Coleman replied to Wong, saying that they started in "one market to simplify," and added, "Given nuances in different countries and languages, we plan to start with pilots as in the US."

Global expansion is coming up next. Since there are so many novel pieces to Birdwatch, we started in one market to simplify. But whole goal is to bring it to everyone. Given nuances in different countries and languages, we plan to start with pilots as in the US.

— Keith Coleman 🌱😀🙌 (@kcoleman) October 16, 2022

Why It's Important: In 2021, a study from New York University and the Université Grenoble Alpes found that news sources known for spreading misinformation received six times the amount of likes, shares, and interaction on Meta Platforms Inc.'s META Facebook than posts by traditional news outlets. Facebook later refuted the claim saying the study measured the number of people who engage with content, not those who actually view it. 

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