A new Twitter update will now require users to read content before retweeting in an attempt to combat the rising trend in fake news on the platform.
In an attempt to combat false information, Twitter is introduced a new trial feature in June asking users whether they had actually read an article before retweeting it. With the results in, the company says it’s pleased with the results of the test and will soon start rolling out the feature globally.
While carrying out the trial Twitter found that users opened articles 40% more often after viewing the prompt, leading to users being more informed about the content they were about to share.
The company stated in some cases users opened the articles and gave up on retweeting the information, which is probably a move in the right direction.
The change comes more than two years after MIT research showed that users are far more likely to share fake news than real news stories.