News

Twitter reveals tags for government and state media accounts

Twitter will start in select countries and expand over time

7 Aug 2020

Twitter will start labeling government and state-affiliated media accounts moving forward, much like it does with “Verified” accounts.

These labels will help users know they are looking at an official Twitter page and not a spoof. So, when you tag a government official or office, you know you’re getting the right account. The labels will also identify known state-affiliated media, giving you a better idea of what may be legit news and what may be propaganda.

Twitter will focus on a wide range of government-affiliated accounts, including:

Foreign ministers
Institutional entities
Ambassadors
Official spokespeople
Key diplomatic leaders
State-affiliated media entities, and their editors-in-chief and their senior staff

Twitter will display the tag directly under the organization or account name. In the previews Twitter revealed, the tags look pretty simple. If you’re looking at a Russian state-affiliated media page, the tag will read “Russian state-affiliated media,” while a government office in the US will have a “US government office” tag.

Twitter didn’t mention whether the tags for individual officials will list their title or just that it’s a government office.

Initially, Twitter won’t hit every official in all countries. It’ll start with the key officials in China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Once it gets a firm grasp on these countries, it plans to expand its tagging to other areas and officials.

Twitter was also careful to define what it considers state-affiliated. According to the social media giant, “state-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

Twitter also announced it’ll no longer amplify or recommend state-affiliated media accounts or tweets.