Twitter has released a string of steps taken to combat fake news and misinformation amid the growing concerns regarding the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Parag Agrawal, who took over as the CEO of Twitter in November last year, listed five key steps taken by Twitter and said, "We have a responsibility — particularly during a crisis."
Agrawal retweeted a post by the company’s Global Public Policy Vice-President, Sinéad McSweeney. McSweeney shared a blog post on Twitter’s approach to the war in Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we’ve been expanding our work to protect the conversation happening on Twitter,” she wrote.
“Over the past several weeks, people in Ukraine, Russia, and around the world have used Twitter to share critical information in real-time, locate support, connect with one another, and raise their voices. Unfortunately, we are also aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia,” Twitter’s blog post said.
Reiterates responsibility
The social media giant reiterated its responsibility to proactively enforce rules, preserve access to Twitter, elevate credible and reliable information, protect the privacy and safety of people, and prevent efforts to manipulate public conversation.
Twitter has removed more than 75,000 accounts for violations of its platform manipulation and spam policy since the Ukraine war began. It has also labeled or removed more than 50,000 pieces of content under synthetic and manipulated media policy.
“We will continue to iterate on our approach, focusing on reducing potential harm and surfacing reliable information,” Twitter said in its blog.