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The move comes as online social networks have
been drawing flak for what has been called a lax approach to
fake news reports and misinformation campaigns, which many
believe affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Twitter's move will involve coming up with new policies "that
emphasize accurate information about all available options to
vote, including by mail and early voting."
"We're focused on empowering every eligible person to register
and vote through partnerships, tools and new policies," Jessica
Herrera-Flanigan, Twitter's vice president for public policy in
the Americas, told Reuters in an email.
Facebook, meanwhile, launched a Voting Information Center to
help users with accurate and easy-to-find information about
voting wherever they live.
The company said in a blog it was also speaking with officials
about misinformation surrounding election results as an emerging
threat.
Twitter said it would roll out measures on new tools, policies
and voting resources in the next month. It is exploring how to
expand its "civic integrity policies" to address
mischaracterizations of mail-in voting and other procedures.
The finer details of the step are still being finalized.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without
evidence that voting by mail, which is expected to increase
dramatically due to the coronavirus outbreak, is susceptible to
large-scale fraud.
The process is not new in the United States — nearly one in four
voters cast 2016 presidential ballots that way.
Many experts have said that routine methods and the
decentralized nature of U.S. elections make it very hard to
interfere with mailed ballots.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gerry
Doyle and Arun Koyyur)
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