Critique: Unsafe and Unverified Twitter

Even with its new tool called "Alert" to notify users of "warnings of imminent dangers," "evacuation directions," and "crowd and misinformation management," Twitter can't seem to shake its notorious habit of unverified tweets. Just this past April, Twitter couldn't stop spreading misinformation during the devastating Boston Marathon Bombing-- and it wasn't just the amateurs. 

CNN, the Associated Press, and the New York Post are noted as some of the most respected news organizations with accounts on Twitter, yet they weren't exempt from the misinforming tweets. Each had spokespersons trying to justify the mistake, saying that "at the time" there were credible sources for the wrong information. "We reported what we knew to be the case or what we were told at the time," says Paul Colford, spokesperson of AP, "and it came undone. We issued the correction which the AP religiously does." 

And it is true that it isn't just Twitter that sparks misinformation, although it's commonly blamed. But with Twitter's array of gadgets, you'd expect one for unverified information. 

Another mishap on Twitter that shook the world in April was when the Associated Press' account was hacked and published a false tweet, alerting that the White House had been bombed and that President Obama had been injured. This was false, of course, but Wall Street plunged for several minutes due to the hacker's tweet, showing just how much power lies in the information given on the social media site. 

If nothing else, blasting off "news" on Twitter in a race to report first defiles several of the 9 Principles of Journalism. A journalist's first obligation is to tell the truth to the audience; the second is loyalty to the audience; and the third is verification. By reporting unverified news, not only these journalists need to be honest in their reporting due to ethical reasons, but not giving truthful reports can only hurt the public. Mis-informing is a dangerous and irresponsible error. 

Not only are these journalists ignoring their duty to tell the truth, but they have seem to have forgotten their obligation of loyalty to the audience. Being loyal requires reporting information the audience can rely on, just like telling the truth. If it wasn't shameful enough that these journalists are not telling the truth, it's downright degrading how disloyal they are being to their audience while reporting via unverified tweets. Journalists are meant to be watchdogs, alerting the public of wrongdoing. Now, the public is forced to serve as the watchdog over journalism. 

With all their gadgets, Twitter should just simply add one that alerts that the certain tweet is or is not verified. It already uses a checkmark beside account names to verify that they are, in fact, who they say they are. Why not have this checkmark beside the tweets that provide verified news reports? Although, even with this suggested adjustment added, the problem might never be completely solved. 

Twitter, however, should be doing more, considering how many are relying on its site for information about the world around them. And with the New York Times, CNN, and AP all on the social networking site, who can blame the public for looking for news online? There should be information that Twitter users can rely on to be accurate. Whether this means a tool to notify users or making some kind of policy for the news organizations that report on the site, the spread of information on Twitter must end.