Twitter partners with Comelec to protect integrity of election-centric discussions

In the lead up to the 2022 General Election in the Philippines, Twitter has partnered with the Commission on Elections (@COMELEC) to amplify voter education initiatives to protect the integrity of election-centric conversations on the platform and encourage healthy civic debate.

The social media platform will introduce search prompts that redirect users to the websites of Comelec and VoteSAFEPilipinas. These prompts will be activated when users search for election-related key phrases such as “NLE 2022,” “vote Philippines,” and “general election.”

Twitter will also label misleading tweets to provide additional context, and to help reduce the visibility of misleading information. The platform may remove or label tweets that contain:

• false or misleading information on participation in the elections and the voting process
• false or misleading information intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in the election. For example, falsely stating that polling places are closed
• false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in the election

They may also remove accounts or content that falsely misrepresent affiliation to a candidate, elected official, political party, electoral authority, or government entity.

Twitter has also formed an internal elections group tasked to protect Trends on Twitter in the Philippines, support partner escalations, and identify potential threats from malicious actors.

Twitter has also launched a series of customized emojis that aim to be valuable visual links to aid the discoverability of election-related discussions. The emojis will run throughout the campaign period and will be available until May 27.

The emoji can be activated by the hashtags #NLE2022, #2022NLE, #BumotoKa, #Halalan2022, #Piniliay2022, #HIJAlalan2022, #PHVote, #PHVoteResults, and #WeDecide.

Twitter is also partnering with several organizations to host and/or promote a series of events on voter education and combating disinformation. Partner organizations include the #FactsFirstPH coalition, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, GMA News, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), the ​​National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and Plan International Philippines.