An Update On Twitter’s Efforts To Support The COVID-19 Conversation In India

More ways to find credible information

Along with the event pages we shared last week, we’ve launched new State-specific COVID-19 pages that surface the latest Tweets from people asking for SOS resources, as well as those offering help. We currently have six State-specific pages available in the places hardest hit by COVID-19, including: Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab.

The COVID-19 SOS page helps surface information from those offering or seeking immediate help during this crisis. We have also built a series of Twitter Moments to help you get the facts from the most reliable sources about vaccine safety, how to stay safe and more.

Twitter Lists curate all the Tweets from accounts on that list in one place, making it easy to navigate and keep up with specific accounts during fast-moving events. We have curated a series of Twitter Lists of health authorities, public health experts, health journalists, fact-checkers, and other authoritative sources, so you can stay up to date about information during the second wave of the pandemic. We’ve also created a List of verified organisations who are engaging in COVID-19 relief work that you can follow on Twitter.

As India opens up vaccination to everyone above the age of 18 years on May 1st, you may be looking for up-to-date, localised information about vaccine safety, vaccine eligibility, and more. To meet this need, we’re expanding our efforts to surface credible COVID-19 information with home Timeline prompts featuring the latest information about COVID-19 vaccines in both English and Hindi.

We are partnering with news and media organisations as well as journalists across India to bring the latest, most credible news about COVID-19 to your timeline. These diverse and trusted voices share valuable information in real-time and in multiple languages across formats like video, Twitter Moments, threads and livestreams.

Enabling developers to build tools in real-time

Developers in India are building creative tools and apps using the Twitter API to help people source information about medical services, oxygen, medicines, food, and more. We've been working closely with developers to ensure their services are able to have the widest impact, and reach the most people while operating in compliance with Twitter's developer policies.

A couple of examples include covid19-twitter.in and covidsos, developed by Umang Galaiya and Mashrin Srivastava respectively. These tools, built using the Twitter API, make use of Twitter’s Advanced Search functionality by providing easy-to-use filters that help people navigate Tweets about COVID-19 in real-time by applying location filters or other search parameters.

To surface the most recent Tweets about COVID-19 resources and requests, Shivam Dhruva and Mahendra Rathod have developed CovidTweet, which is an interface that lets volunteers see recent, verified requests in one place.

Sprinklr has built a comprehensive dashboard to give people a way to see city-specific requests for medicines, oxygen, hospital beds, plasma, and other critical necessities.

CovidVerified, developed by Shikhar Saxena and Siddharth Bulia is enabling volunteers on-the-ground  to verify the availability and fulfilment of requests related to oxygen, hospital beds and many other essentials.

Helping you donate to organisations

Prompt: We have launched a prompt that will show up for anyone searching key hashtags such as #helpIndia and #donateIndia, or even combinations of key terms like ‘help’ + ‘India’ or ‘donate’ + India’. The prompt will direct you to a Twitter List of verified organisations that we work with, and to an event page featuring the latest Tweets from some of the organisations on the front lines of India’s COVID-19 response.

Tip Jar: Last week we launched Tip Jar, a new way for people to support others with money and lend a helping hand. It allows you to link to an existing account with the following payment providers: PayPal, Cash App, Patreon, Bandcamp and Venmo, and takes you off Twitter to the selected app where you can show your support in the amount you choose. Twitter takes no cut.

This feature is particularly relevant during a crisis like the one we are in, which is why we are in the process of expanding the number of accounts that have access to this feature in the country. We are also working to bring Indian payment providers to Tip Jar, along with the ability to use Tip Jar in multiple languages.

Our approach

Ads for Good Credits: Following our earlier commitment to provide Ads for Good credits to help amplify Tweets from five non-profits and organisations supporting COVID-relief efforts, we have extended credits to six new organisations including: Give India, Akshaya Patra, Milaap, Rise Against Hunger India and the Hemkunt Foundation.

Protecting the public conversation with our policies

We are committed to protecting the public conversation, and our policies help us do that. A global team of specialists are working around the clock to make it easy to find credible information on Twitter and to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content.

COVID-19 Misinformation Policy: We know people are concerned about misinformation circulating on the service in the midst of a public health crisis, and we want to ensure we are clear when articulating our policies. We tackle COVID-19 misinformation based on the highest potential for harm using a combination of product, technology, and human review. In order for content related to COVID-19 to be labeled or removed under this policy, it must:

●        Advance a claim of fact, expressed in definitive terms

●        Be demonstrably false or misleading, based on widely available, authoritative sources

●        Be likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm

As of 1 March 2021, following the update to our COVID-19 misleading information policy regarding misleading information about vaccines, we apply a label warning on Tweets that advance unsubstantiated rumors and disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines. Tweets which advance harmful false or misleading narratives about COVID-19 vaccinations will continue to be removed.