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Under new command, Twitter is slow to act on misleading content in US elections

Under new command, Twitter is slow to act on misleading content in US elections

Experts reported the spread of misleading content on Twitter and other social media services on Tuesday as Americans voted in the midterm elections, four days after Twitter fired half its staff.

Nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause said Twitter took no action on profile posts that the organization flagged as problematic on Tuesday.

The US Congressional elections have presented a new test for social media companies, which have struggled for years to balance free speech and potentially harmful comments. While Twitter’s policies allow for the restriction of disinformation, enforcement has been spotty, and the recent turnaround in its leadership has put the company in the spotlight.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk, the new owner of the social network, tweeted a recommendation for votes for Republican candidates.

Voices from the American right took to social media on Tuesday to falsely blame Democrats for voting failures reported in some quarters.

Common Cause said Twitter posts by Republican candidates Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake should have been given warning labels under the social network’s civic integrity policy, which governs misleading election tweets. Greene and Lake’s posts attracted tens of thousands of likes and retweets.

The group also noted a “big slowdown” in the social network’s response time since Friday, when layoffs wiped out many of the company’s teams responsible for highlighting credible information.

Twitter “doesn’t respond beyond saying they’re investigating something, and then it’s gone for days,” the group said, noting that the company’s response time was typically one to three hours.

The social network, which lost many members of its communications team in the layoffs, did not respond to requests for comment.

Prior to Tuesday, both Musk and Twitter’s head of security and integrity Yoel Roth wrote that the company would defend and enforce its electoral integrity policies during the election.

The discussion on Twitter on Tuesday focused on real voting problems in states with closely monitored races, such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to research groups that study online election information.

Activity increased after popular commentators on Twitter attributed the problems — without providing evidence — to alleged attempts by Democrats to keep Republican voters from voting, according to the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of polling firms.

Election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, said the problems faced on Tuesday would not affect the vote count, while officials in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, extended voting hours as compensation.

Source: CNN Brasil