Helping Hand: US 'Anti-Disinformation' Chief Wants Verified Twitter Users to Edit Others' Posts
11:46 GMT 13.05.2022 (Updated: 05:40 GMT 30.04.2023)
© AFP 2023 / DENIS CHARLET
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The blue tick for users who are "authentic, notable, and active" was introduced over a decade ago, and it seems that the White House has an idea about how to use this in its constant fight against "fake news".
Nina Jankowicz appears to be very proud of her blue tick on Twitter, and believes that verified users need to shoulder the burden of telling what is truthful and what is not.
"Verified people can essentially start to 'edit' Twitter [in] the same sort of way that Wikipedia is so they can add context to certain tweets", she said during a Zoom call, shared by The Post Millenial.
Biden's "Ministry of Truth" director says she wants "verified people" like her to be able to edit people's tweets so they can "add context to certain tweets" pic.twitter.com/KgMxUn3Hs6
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 11, 2022
Likewise, it seems that some users "are more equal than others", according to Jankowicz. "There are a lot of people who shouldn’t be verified, who aren’t legit", she explained, claiming that “they’re not trustworthy".
"If President [Donald] Trump were still on Twitter and tweeted a claim about voter fraud, someone could add context from one of the 60 lawsuits that went through the court or something that an election official said… so that people have a fuller picture rather than just an individual claim on a tweet", she added.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has recently struck a deal to purchase Twitter, has already addressed Jankowicz's statements , calling her idea "disconcerting" and tweeting "Don't Diss Information".
In this file photo taken on March 9, 2020 Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC
© AFP 2023 / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
In the meantime, he also said that the Twitter deal is "temporarily on hold" due to a recent Reuters publication suggesting that spam/fake accounts represent less than 5% of Twitter users. This figure is crucial since Musk has prioritised the eradication of spam accounts and bots in his takeover.
Back in April, Jankowicz became the head of Biden's Disinformation Governance Board, created to fight "fakes" and conspiracy theories over coronavirus, US elections, Russian special operations and other topics.
The move immediately prompted concerns about censorship, with critics of the Biden administration comparing the body to George Orwell's Ministry of Truth.
While Jankowicz is considered a "disinformation expert", her previous social media posts suggest she was a big fan of the "Russian meddling" narrative pushed by Democrat lawmakers and the media in 2016. She even shared Hillary Clinton's tweets suggesting that Trump "has a secret server" to communicate with Moscow.
