You want to retweet a tweet on Twitter and find that you are being prompted to quote a reply rather than the usual retweet options… Why is that?
This is part of Twitter’s new measures aimed at staving off abuse around the November 3rd US presidential election in line with its Civic Integrity Policy.
If you want to Retweet as usual, just click the Retweet button but do not add any text when prompted to quote reply and the retweeted tweet will appear as it normally does.
The extra steps in retweeting have been put in place in the hope that for those who simply want to Retweet, the extra friction will encourage one to not only consider why they are amplifying a Tweet, but also increase the likelihood that people add their own thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation.
Twitter also announced a raft of measures to combat abuse of its platform during the US elections on their blog post US 2020 Election Changes
“Twitter plays a critical role around the globe by empowering democratic conversation, driving civic participation, facilitating meaningful political debate, and enabling people to hold those in power accountable.”
Other measures include the following:
Tweets that include premature claims of victory will be labelled, tweets intended to incite interference in the election or election results will be subject to removal.
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And when a user tries to retweet a tweet that’s been labelled as “misleading,” they’ll see a prompt directing them to credible information before they can retweet the bad info.
While their intention to honour the electoral process in their new Civic Integrity Policy is lauded one wonders if they will roll out changes only for the US elections and as for African Elections… nobody can stop reggae.
What are your thoughts? Who decides what is misleading and what’s not meanwhile Afrika Bleeds, I am afraid to scroll the internet lest I run into another lifeless body and a flag covered in the blood of causalities in the war against oppression…
Nigeria- #ENDSARS #LekkiMassacre
Congo – #CongoIsBleeding
Namibia- #ShutItAllDown
Cameroon- #AnglophoneCrisis
Zimbabwe- #ZimabweanLivesMatter
Becoming The Muse 
South Africa- #StopGBV
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Something like that happened to me this morning on Facebook. I was sharing a mainstream article to myself only (nobody else would see it) so I could read it later when I had more time — and a screen popped up saying, ‘Contains an image that mentions Covid-19. For info and resources, go to the Covid-19 Information Centre.’ I had to click again to get the link properly shared. Feels like internet clutter!
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People trying to police the internet but strangest thing if you ask me is they major on the minors and not the real problems out there
hey the Delilah, dont think I have seen you on the interwebs from before Covid hahaha
hope you are good
~B
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I fell off my blog for a while, so to speak, but we’re still well, thanks! Just been snoozing in front of TV, with a cat next to me rising up under her white blanket, pretending to be a ghost. Hope you are well too!
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I didn’t notice the change because I don’t use Twitter often enough and the Retweet option even less.
I think I would like this update, though. People retweet too much. Maybe this way it would reduce the size of retweets. But if it’s possible to leave the comment blank, then what is the point?
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as you mention it will reduce the number of retweets especially those done by click farms and automated 3rd party apps aka bots (until of course they learn how to bypass this knew hurdle)
I like the thoughts behind the update trying to get one to reflect on what they are sharing…
They also tried to introduce another update whereby if you were retweeting a tweet with a link to an article it would ask if you had read the post before sharing and I thought about how bloggers would love this update…
~B
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Ahh, interesting. People would probably click yes without reading, but it’s worth a try.
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I retweet a lot of blog posts without reading or rather before I read them… but in my defence its for a good cause
~B
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Is it because you know the authors or think that the title is a good one?
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a bit of both and also because I help manage a blogging community
~B
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Well, then you should check these pieces out even more so. You are responsible!
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I do, I am^_^
…eventually I go through everything I share, one can never be too careful, but yeah for those I am familiar with to know they do their due diligence I might just share without first having read and its also a way to keep of the feed I want to read as it would disappear and be swallowed in the thousands of other things otherwise…
~b
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Twitter wants us to reflect you kill me
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Stop
Verify
Reflect
~B
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