Twitter aims to limit people sharing articles they have not read

[sl8]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/11/twitter-aims-to-limit-people-sharing-articles-they-have-not-read

Twitter aims to limit people sharing articles they have not read

Test to promote informed discussion will ask users if they want to retweet unread links

Alex Hern
Published onThu 11 Jun 2020 06.36 EDT

Twitter is trying to stop people from sharing articles they have not read, in an experiment the company hopes will “promote informed discussion” on social media.

In the test, pushed to some users on Android devices, the company is introducing a prompt asking people if they really want to retweet a link that they have not tapped on.

“Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you tweet it,” Twitter said in a statement. “To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android – when you retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d like to open it first.”

The problem of users sharing links without reading them is not new. A 2016 study from computer scientists at Columbia University and Microsoft found that 59% of links posted on Twitter are never clicked.

[...]

[Mike 03]

1. This will virtually eliminate Trump's retweets.

Or at least some of them.

[Ms. Toad]

2. It's not mandatory -

He'll just click through . . . and then tweet about censorship.

[mopinko]

3. and they can prove this how?

i share stuff i read on du.

[lostnfound]

4. That's stupid

If I see an article on horses I might send to a friend who daisies them but not want to read it myself
A friend who has a type of cancer might want the link to a thread on that topic.

[JonLP24]

5. Twitter isn't worth the discussion sometimes

I mostly retweet or like rather than comment. It is rare when I comment.