Twitter Unveils Labels for Flagged Tweets to Bolster Transparency and Limit Reach

Twitter has announced plans to add labels to flagged tweets, reducing their visibility and promoting a "freedom of speech, not reach" approach. The move aims to enhance transparency surrounding Twitter's process for limiting the reach of tweets containing hateful content.

The labels will be visible to both authors and viewers, typically displaying messages such as "Visibility limited: this Tweet may violate Twitter's rules against Hateful Conduct." Tweets with these labels will be excluded from search results, recommendations, and timelines, and will not feature any adjacent ads.

Twitter acknowledges that mistakes may occur in labeling tweets and encourages authors to submit feedback. However, submitting feedback does not guarantee a response or restoration of the tweet's reach.

The new visibility policy differs from previous practices in that it will be applied at the tweet level instead of the account level. It remains unclear if Twitter will restrict the reach of a tweet if someone quotes it to highlight the label or if drawing attention to such tweets will inadvertently increase their visibility.

Under Elon Musk's ownership, Twitter has reduced staff in moderation and safety sectors, focusing on developing crowdsourced moderation tools for Community Notes to alleviate the burden on staff and contractors.