Lok Sabha elections 2019: Twitter allows to 'report' false tweets on voting

The Lok Sabha elections 2019 are in full swing these days with different government parties trying to convince billions of Indians why they should vote for them. A part of the convincing also includes the spread of fake news, rumours and false claims, which are amplified by several others on social networks to manipulate people. And Twitter, one of the platforms where information spreads like fire, is at the forefront of stopping this type of information. This time it is not regulating the information itself, but it is giving Twitter users the power to report tweets that can distract voters.

Twitter says it will present the new "reporting" feature for Indian Lok Sabha elections starting on April 25 (today), followed by the EU elections starting on April 29.

"Today, we are further expanding our enforcement capabilities in this area by creating a dedicated reporting feature within the product to allow users to more easily report this content to us," states the blog post. "We will start with 2019 Lok Sabha in India and the EU elections and then roll out to other elections globally throughout the rest of the year."

The microblogging website adds that the propagation of misleading information about how to vote or register to vote will be considered as an act of violation of the fundamental values of Twitter. Propagation of incorrect information about voting dates, identification requirements and more will be included in the same list.

In case you encounter these tweets, you can report using the app or the desktop interface. In the Twitter application, users can select the report tweet option in the drop-down menu followed by "it's misleading about voting" and submit it. The same procedure needs to be followed on the desktop as well.

In case you do not know, this function will work in addition to the existing measure of dealing with malicious automation and other forms of manipulation of the platform on the website.