Twitter Expands Efforts to Combat Misinformation on Census

(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. expanded efforts to protect the U.S. census, saying Tuesday it will tweak search results for census-related terms to prompt users to visit the U.S. Census Bureau website.

The social-media company also said it will continue to prohibit posts containing false or misleading information about how to participate in the national survey -- a policy that also applies to election-related misinformation.

Twitter and Facebook Inc. have been criticized for their slow response to disinformation campaigns in the past. While the companies don’t want to be held responsible for everything their users post, they have more recently agreed to apply stricter scrutiny to election-related posts, preventing those that lie about the time or place for voting, for instance. Lawmakers and civil rights groups have pressured the platforms to step up oversight of the census because it’s ripe for foreign government manipulation due to the implication the results could have on future elections around the country.

Facecbook said in December that it would extend its misinformation policies to the census, a nationwide survey conducted every decade that determines how many seats in the House of Representatives each state receives and how federal funding is allocated. It also will be used this year to redraw state and local voting districts.

In addition to prohibiting false information, Twitter will prominently link to the Census Bureau website when people search for questions related to the survey, the company said in a blog post. That means users can get information directly from the federal government, rather than relying on those posting on Twitter for information.

Twitter has taken a similar approach to searches about the coronavirus, prompting users to visit the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facebook is doing something along the same lines. Both companies have also recently announced policies for manipulated media in an effort to get ahead of possible misinformation in the form of deepfake videos or edited photographs.

It remains to be seen how effectively Twitter applies its policy. Messages can spread quickly on social media sites before the companies have time to apply their policies.

(Updates with details on coronavirus policy in the sixth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Kurt Wagner.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Newcomer in San Francisco at enewcomer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Molly Schuetz at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

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