Twitter India announces measures to 'prevent political ads' ahead of assembly elections

In a massive development ahead of Assembly elections in five Indian states, Twitter has raised bars over scrutinising the world's largest social networking platform by "preventing prohibited political advertising," given the poll dates that are nearing in India. In a statement on Wednesday, Twitter said that "ads from referenced candidates, parties and other election-related content will be identified and blocked."
 
The networking giant in its attempt to rectify any or all manipulative content during polls in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, and Puducherry — will deploy a global cross-functional team with local, cultural, and language experts who will monitor the Indian assembly elections. Twitter said that the platform will enforce "significant product, policy, and enforcement updates  to keep the service safe from attempts to manipulate the platform."

'Prompt during retweet to inform users what's manipulative and what's credible'

Any manipulated and synthetic content on the platform will be labelled and linked to a "Twitter Moment" — where users will be given additional context and surface-related conversations, so they can "make more informed decisions on the content they want to engage with or amplify. [sic]" Twitter clarified. It meant that when a user attempts to retweet a tweet that is labelled for manipulative content, the user will see a prompt that will direct them to the real source of credible information.

'Official 'events page' on Twitter for credible data on polls in India'

The company announced that "These Tweets won't be algorithmically recommended by Twitter, which further reduces the visibility of misleading information." Moreover, Twitter will also launch an official "events page" that will display the important Indian assembly election dates along with a timeline of the latest Tweets from "credible accounts."

The company asserted "These will be visible to account holders in India in the Explore Tab, and will provide continuous updates and context throughout the election period with multiple language videos from a variety of news partners in the carousel. [sic]"