Twitter will label political candidates following uproar over Russian interference

New effort to give Twitter users accurate information

Twitter said the new feature will help users get 'authentic, trustworthy information' (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Twitter is continuing its effort to bring transparency to political messages by announcing it will label candidates for office.

With midterm elections months away, the social media site announced that the profiles of office-seekers running for governor or Congress will contain information about where they are running and for which office. Any time a candidate’s account sends tweets or retweets others, those same labels will appear.

In a blog post announcing the addition, Twitter to said it was part of an effort to help users identify “original sources and authentic information”. Twitter is partnering on the initiative with Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan political information site.

“Providing the public with authentic, trustworthy information is crucial to the democratic process, and we are committed to furthering that goal through the tools we continue to build”, the post said.

Left unsaid was the pressure Twitter has come under to monitor political content after Russian agents used the platform to disseminate misinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign.

As Congress has delved into intelligence officials’ conclusion that the Kremlin directed an effort to sway the election, Twitter and Facebook have been compelled to reveal how Russian agents exploited their platforms - and have pledged to act.

Twitter has said more than 3,800 Twitter accounts operating in the runup to the election were operated by the Internet Research Agency, a so-called “troll farm” described in a federal indictment of Russian operatives as a weapon of “information warfare against the United States of America”.

Some 1.4 million Twitter users have been notified they interacted with Internet Research Agency tweets, Twitter has said.

The company also pledged to roll out new tools illuminating when tweets are paid political content and detailing who purchased the advertisements.