Twitter is testing a new feature that’ll effectively tell users “Hey, maybe you should read that article before you retweet it.”
When users on Android go to re-tweet an article they have not clicked into (and presuambly, read), they will be met with a pop-up from Twitter asking if they really want to do that.
The move is intended "to help promote informed discussion" and start “healthier conversations” between users, according to a Twitter spokesperson. The company declined to elaborate, but we suspect the social media service is tired of seeing Twitter arguments erupt over an article simply because some users only read the headline and ignored its content.
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In addition, the same feature might work as a guardrail to prevent misinformation from going viral on the social media site. Routinely, unwitting users can end up circulating articles with sensational claims, not realizing the content comes from dubious sources.
However, Twitter told PCMag that users can choose to ignore the prompt, and retweet (or retweet with comment) the article, regardless if they’ve opened the link or not. So for some users, the feature may end up being an annoyance, rather than a thoughtful reminder.
We also won’t be surprised if some critics claim Twitter is trying to censor users by rolling out the test feature. Last month, the company for the first time fact-checked two tweets from President Trump about mail-in balloting, which prompted the commander in chief to accuse Twitter of holding a bias against conservatives. Trump has now launched an all-effort to regulate US social media companies.
Twitter says the read-before-you-share test feature will be limited to English Android users.
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