It's not just Facebook aiming to free its platform of fake news — Twitter would very much like that, too. Recent news said Facebook was going to roll out a special breaking news section on Watch, a segment of the site dedicated to videos. Looks like Twitter is doing the same thing.
Twitter is partnering with local news stations to stream their broadcasts on the site during major breaking stories. The move makes a lot of sense considering that when something major happens, it usually first breaks on Twitter before anywhere else.
Twitter Enlists Breaking News Livestreams
The partnership, as BuzzFeed News reports, went live on Valentine's Day when Twitter started broadcasting news from Miami's WSVN 7 during a fatal shooting at a high school in the northern part of the city.
Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter's video head, said the company is trying to incorporate ways to deliver "credible and relevant information to help people stay informed." Local news sources are usually the best place to get accurate and current information, and Twitter integrating them into its service is a wise move. Clicking on a livestream also opens up a stream of tweets related to the news item chosen by Twitter's algorithm.
"By pairing live video with the conversation on Twitter, there is no faster way to see what's happening in the world," Beykpour said. He came to the company as the CEO of Periscope, a livestreaming app Twitter acquired in 2015.
Fake News
Twitter's move also comes as an assurance that it's embracing its role as a media platform and is trying to find way to go about that responsibly. Fake news has become a pernicious problem on social media, most prominent during the highly divisive and toxic 2016 presidential election, which Russians meddled with at least in the online space, according to reports.
Twitter's decision to feature news streams contrast with Facebook recent changes, which have been to deemphasize news items in people's news feeds and instead display posts and updates by friends and family. To be fair, Facebook also announced that users will also see more of local news on their feeds.
But while livestream is a great way for Twitter to offer legitimate news, that doesn't mean fake news will be any less widespread on the site. It's still a tremendous problem Twitter has to deal with, but live breaking news broadcast is certainly a good place to start.
Thoughts about Twitter's live breaking news broadcasts? Do you think this will eventually help in fighting fake news? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
