Twitter accepted QAnon account into its community anti-misinformation project, leaked internal audit says

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Twitter accepted QAnon account into its community anti-misinformation project, leaked internal audit says
Twitter was warned by its own experts that QAnon members would attempt to join its Birdwatch fact-checking project, per a leaked internal audit.Kacper Pempel/Reuters
  • Twitter accepted a QAnon account into a community-led fact-checking project, leaked audit says.
  • Twitter only uncovered the "overt" account the night before the project launched, the audit says.
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Twitter accepted an advocate of the QAnon conspiracy theory into its community anti-misinformation project, a leaked internal audit says.

The audit, obtained by The Washington Post, says Twitter staffers only uncovered an "overt" QAnon-affiliated account the night before the launch of Birdwatch, the company's invite-only fact-checking project.

Members of the Birdwatch program have the power to vet misleading information shared on the platform and provide informative context to tweets. These notes are viewable only by a small group of US users on Twitter, but are accessible to all on a separate Birdwatch website.

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Twitter had been specifically warned by the company's own experts that QAnon members would attempt to join Birdwatch, the audit says. It says this feedback "was not incorporated" into the plans for Birdwatch, and that the company found itself in a "last-minute scramble to secure the project launch."

Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.

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The incident was noted in a whistleblower complaint to regulators by Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former head of security. While at the company, Zatko commissioned disinformation experts Alethea Group to audit Twitter's ability to fight misinformation.

The 24-page report, published in 2021, found Twitter was consistently "behind the curve" in responding to misinformation threats.

Alethea Group didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside usual working hours.

The Post reported an anonymous senior official at Twitter as saying the audit was based on interviews with 12 Twitter employees, and could exaggerate individual concerns, including specific worries about the Birdwatch launch.

Twitter publicly promised to crack down on QAnon activity in 2020 but research published two years later suggested QAnon accounts were still evading moderators.

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