Nov 6, 2020
Twitter labels election victory tweets lacking official sources
Bloomberg News
,![Signage is displayed outside of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, July 16, 2020. As Twitter Inc. grapples with the worst security breach in its 14-year history, it must now uncover whether its employees were victims of sophisticated phishing schemes or if they deliberately allowed hackers to access high-profile accounts. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg, Bloomberg Signage is displayed outside of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, July 16, 2020. As Twitter Inc. grapples with the worst security breach in its 14-year history, it must now uncover whether its employees were victims of sophisticated phishing schemes or if they deliberately allowed hackers to access high-profile accounts. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg](/polopoly_fs/1.1518874.1604694818!/fileimage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/signage-is-displayed-outside-of-twitter-headquarters-in-san-francisco-california-u-s-on-thursday-july-16-2020-as-twitter-inc-grapples-with-the-worst-security-breach-in-its-14-year-history-it-must-now-uncover-whether-its-employees-were-victims-of-sophisticated-phishing-schemes-or-if-they-deliberately-allowed-hackers-to-access-high-profile-accounts-photographer-david-paul-morris-bloomberg.jpg)
Twitter Inc. is placing labels on tweets that claim victory for either candidate in the U.S. presidential election, until more of the sources it considers official have called the race.
Twitter labeled a recent tweet celebrating a Joe Biden win by Tommy Vietor, the co-host of Pod Save America and a former official in President Barack Obama’s administration. “Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted,” Twitter’s warning said. The company put the same warning on a tweet by Representative Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, who claimed Donald Trump “won this election.”
Twitter requires at least two official sources to declare a winner of the presidential election before it will stop labeling tweets this way, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Those sources are either announcements from state election officials, or public projections from at least two authoritative, national news outlets that make independent election calls, Twitter said.
The official sources include ABC News, the Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, National Election Pool, NBC News and Reuters.
Facebook on Thursday said it would broadcast the winner to all users on Facebook and Instagram once a majority of official sources call the race.