Twitter’s efforts to maintain transparency during the upcoming election is noticeable. And recently the social media site has announced that it’ll be adding profile labels for every candidate. The label will display their name and their standing in the 2020 U.S elections.
Twitter launched labels back in 2018 before the US midterm elections
to highlight campaign activity. According to Twitter, the labels played an
important role during the election conversations and the new labels will come
with added information.
"In
the week before Election Day, people on Twitter saw Labeled accounts
approximately 100 million times each day, and 13% of US election conversation
on Twitter included a Tweet with an Election Label."
"Starting this week, we’ll start identifying
candidates who qualify for the primary ballot for US House, US Senate, and
Gubernatorial races with a verified badge. [...] Twitter is partnering with
Ballotpedia, a civic nonprofit organization that publishes nonpartisan
information on federal, state, and local politics, to help identify the
campaign Twitter accounts of candidates once they qualify for the general
election ballot for an applicable office."
The new labels are expected to
provide more transparency and although this effort might seem very minor, it is
important. During the 2020 U.S. elections, social media sites are expected to be
closely monitored for their role in election promotions and other aspects,
hence Twitter's efforts to improve its tools are understandable.
You can expect these new labels to
be made available from this week.
