Social media website, Twitter, will soon add live streaming of news contents to its platform.
The issue of fake news is a constant horror for social media companies today. Most new features that have popped up on the domains of Facebook and Twitter have chiefly been in a bid to tackle the monster.
And, Twitter is taking its own efforts up a notch. The platform would add a live stream feature for news stories. This feature would appear next to users’ timelines anytime a major incident occurs.
In a statement, the company said: “we’re continuing to work on new ways we can surface credible and relevant information to help people stay informed.”
This feature has already been the works for quite sometime, and had even been tested recently. Twitter live streamed reporting from a US TV station during the Florida school shooting incident that killed 17 people last week. Footage from Miami’s WSVN appeared on Twitter and it was viewed by more than 50,000 people.
By pairing live video with the conversation on Twitter, there is no faster way to see what’s happening in the world,” Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s Video GM told Buzzfeed News.
How Would Twitter’s News Live Streaming Work?
Twitter’s live streaming feature for news will rely on a slew of partnerships with regional news stations. This will allow the platform curate stories and select what footage will be live streamed.
Whenever a major incident occurs, the live streaming feature would be displayed next to users’ timelines.
Clicking the live streamed video would take a user to a timeline containing tweets about the event. These tweets are “algorithmically selected” for display based on relevance.
Assault On Fake News
This is the latest feature introduced to tackle the menace of fake news on social media. Fake news have been a problem on social media for the last two years.
In Nigeria, people have frequently witnessed a host of fake news stories going viral on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and even Whatsapp.
Just a few weeks ago, a viral photograph and an accompanying story was been shared that Fulani herdsmen were killing people along the important Lagos-Ibadan express way.
That story turned out to be false. And its accompanying image dates back to a deadly armed robbery that occurred eight years ago..
However, that story had already gained critical mass before it disappeared.
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