Micro-blogging platform Twitter will label and lessen the visibility of tweets hyperlinked to Russian state-owned media in an attempt to tamp down propaganda from the country.
CNN tech reporter Brian Fung posted an example of the label that would be added to tweets that are hyperlinked to certain sites like Russia Today and Sputnik.
Twitter users are able to bring articles to the attention of their followers, but the social media site can tweak its algorithm to lessen the spread of those tweets when it deems it necessary.
The company said that the “overwhelming majority” of tweets containing the state-sponsored content was shared by individuals and not by the accounts run by those outlets. About 45,000 tweets were sent per day by these individual accounts, according to the company.
Facebook and Google recently blocked Russian state-owned media from appearing in Ukraine at the behest of that country’s government. The two platforms also barred the state-owned organizations from monetization and profiting from advertisements anywhere in the world.
Russia called these efforts censorship and threatened to throttle Facebook in their country while Twitter has already reported disruptions in its access.
Many of the heroic Ukrainian efforts to resist the Russian invaders have gone viral on social media and inspired admiration from onlookers around the world. On the other side of the coin, Russia has been caught trying to use social media in order to spread misinformation about its invasion of Ukraine.
Tech expert Ritesh Kotak told CTV News that Russia had passed laws in order make social media companies more vulnerable to state censorship.
“The thing about disinformation is it’s so easy to put up and propagate now because of the internet and just how connected we are,” said Kotak.
Here’s more on the social media fight against Russia:
Number of social media platforms take action against Russia
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