Twitter Adds Labels Identifying Government Officials And State-affiliated Media accounts

Twitter will henceforth make it easier for users to identify official government accounts and state-affiliated media. The social media platform will begin adding labels to accounts that represent the government and state-backed media.

Twitter shared that it will start with “accounts of key government officials, including foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders,” and that the “focus is on senior officials and entities who are the official voice of the state abroad.”

The labels will initially cover official accounts from the US, UK, Russia, China and France, with more countries to follow in the near future.

Read: Twitter to Label Confusing or Misleading Tweets

The labels are already visible on various accounts and will appear on the profiles and tweets sent out by the accounts.

For state-affiliated media, Twitter will label the official accounts belonging to the media organization, its editors-in-chief, and/or senior staff.

The company has defined state media as “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

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