Twitter will label and remove fake election tweets starting September 17

Twitter has laid out a detailed plan to curb misleading tweets and false claims and maintain civic integrity ahead of the November 3 presidential elections in the US.

From September 17, Twitter will label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election or other civic process.

The micro-blogging platform said on Thursday that in recognition of the changing circumstances of how people will vote in 2020, and in line with "our commitment to protecting the integrity of the election conversation", it is expanding the existing Civic Integrity Policy.

"The goal is to further protect against content that could suppress the vote and help stop the spread of harmful misinformation that could compromise the integrity of an election or other civic process," Twitter said in a blog post.

Twitter said it will act upon false or misleading information that causes confusion about the laws and regulations of a civic process, or officials and institutions executing those civic processes.

It will purge disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself -- unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.

It will also act upon misleading claims about the results or outcome of a civic process which calls for or could lead to interference with the implementation of the results of the process.

"In line with our existing enforcement approach, Tweets that are labeled under this expanded policy will have reduced visibility across the service. Reducing the visibility of Tweets means that we will not amplify the Tweets on a number of surfaces across Twitter," the company said.

Anyone following the account will still be able to see the Tweet and Retweet.

"We will not permit our service to be abused around civic processes, most importantly elections," Twitter said.

People cannot use Twitter's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.

"Any attempt to compromise the integrity of any election will be met with strict enforcement of our rules, which are applied impartially and judiciously for everyone," it said.

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