Twitter Struggles To Label Misleading COVID-19 Tweets

Automated technology that Twitter began using this month to label tweets containing coronavirus misinformation is making mistakes, raising concerns about the company's reliance on artificial intelligence to review content. From a report: On May 11, Twitter started labeling tweets that spread a conspiracy theory about 5G causing the coronavirus. Authorities believe the false theory prompted some people to set fires to cell towers. Twitter will remove misleading tweets that encourage people to engage in behavior such as damaging cell towers. Other tweets that don't incite the same level of harm but include false or disputed claims should get a label that directs users to trusted information. The label reads "Get the facts about COVID-19" and takes users to a page with curated tweets that debunk the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory. Twitter's technology, though, has made scores of mistakes, applying labels to tweets that refute the conspiracy theory and provide accurate information. Tweets that include links to news stories from Reuters, BBC, Wired and Voice of America about the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory have been labeled. In one case, Twitter applied the label to tweets that shared a page the company itself had published titled "No, 5G isn't causing coronavirus." Tweets with words such as 5G, coronavirus, COVID-19 or hashtags #5Gcoronavirus have also been mistakenly labeled.