9 of the most important Twitter trends in 2020

 

9 Important Twitter Trends to Watch For in 2020

Twitter trends. We’re not talking about hashtags.

We’re talking the tectonic shifts that are shaking and shaping the platform. And based on what we’ve seen so far, 2020 is turning out to be a pretty unprecedented year.

From measures to halt the spread of misinformation, to a leadership shakeup and the roll out of Fleets, these are the top Twitter trends we’re tracking right now.

9 of the most important Twitter trends in 2020

1. Stronger efforts to stop the spread of misinformation

Even before the Coronavirus hit Twitter news feeds, the platform was under pressure to deal with the spread of misinformation. Now, preventing the contamination of truth is more important than ever.

#Coronavirus is the second most-used hashtag of 2020. And tweets about COVID-19 are sent every 45 milliseconds. It all amasses to millions of tweets on a platform that people look to for crisis communications.

In late January, Twitter rolled out a Covid-19 search prompt to ensure searches provided results from credible and authoritative sources. To that end, Twitter has also partnered with and offered pro bono advertisements to organizations involved in the relief effort.

Twitter also released an update to its policy on synthetic and manipulated media. Content that poses a risk to public safety will be removed. All posts that show signs of fabrication or manipulation will be marked with a label—granted that none slip through the cracks.

Notably, a post tweeted by U.S. President Donald Trump bore a “manipulated media” disclaimer. Labels have also been brought back to identify politicians in the run-up to the U.S. general election. More recently,Twitter added a warning label to two of Trump’s tweets, describing the content as “unsubstantiated.”

Source: Twitter

Twitter banned political ads in October last year. But as political and public safety pressures mount, debates about deep fakes, hateful content and behaviour, and disinformation will undoubtedly give rise to policy tweaks and further developments.