Twitter to add labels to accounts of government officials, state media entities

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Twitter will start adding labels to accounts belonging to “key government officials,” as well as state-affiliated media companies and their senior staff members, the company said Thursday. 

In a statement, the social media site said it would add labels to Twitter accounts that meet the following criteria: 

  • Accounts of key government officials, including foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders. “At this time, our focus is on senior officials and entities who are the official voice of the state abroad,” the company said.
  • Accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their senior staff 

The labels will appear directly beneath Twitter users' names on their pages.

“Our mission is to serve the public conversation, and an important part of that work is providing people with context so they can make informed decisions about what they see and how they engage on Twitter,” the company said. 

Twitter will focus on “senior officials and entities that are the voice of the nation state abroad” when it adds its labels. As part of the intitial rollout, labels will be limited to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

“For transparency and practicality, we are starting with a limited and clearly-defined group of countries before expanding to a wider range of countries in the future,” the company said. 

“At this time, we’re not labeling the personal accounts of heads of state, as these accounts enjoy widespread name recognition, media attention and public awareness,” it added. 

Read the full press release here.