Twitter introduces new rule to label, remove manipulated media

Twitter on Tuesday (local time) announced a new rule to help verify the photographs or videos that are shared on the platform in order to make the medium less prone to misinformation.

"We know that some Tweets include manipulated photos or videos that can cause people harm. Today we are introducing a new rule and a label that will address this and give people more context around these tweets", the company wrote on Twitter.

Under its new rule, the social media giant is planning to label tweets (messages) so that the users can gauge the authenticity of the information being shared on the medium.

"A critical part of this change was developing this with input from the public, civil society groups, and academic experts. We received 6,500+ responses on our approach and will continue to make changes like this openly and in consultation with people around the world," the company said in another tweet.

In its blog post, Twitter said if the media shared in the platform has been "significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated", it will provide additional context on the tweet.

"This means we may -- apply a label to the tweet, show a warning to people before they retweet or like the tweet, reduce the visibility of the tweet on Twitter and/or prevent it from being recommended, and/or provide additional explanations or clarifications, as available, such as a landing page with more context. In most cases, we will take all of the above actions on tweets we label, the company elaborated.

Twitter said that it will begin the process of labelling tweets from fake media on March 5.

"This will be a challenge and we will make errors along the way. We appreciate the patience. However, we are committed to doing this right. Updating our rules in public and with democratic participation will continue to be core to our approach," it stated.

"We are working to serve the public conversation, and doing our work openly and with the people who use our service," the social media platform further said.

Twitter's decision has come in the backdrop of social media platforms that has been receiving flak for their role in the spread of misinformation.

It also comes after Facebook announced last month that it will ban deepfake videos on its platform.