Twitter, the microblogging site owned by Elon Musk, is supposed to promoting free speech, It cannot fight every disinformation-filled tweet shared on the site but it has the wherewithal to deal with glaring examples of disinformation…
Two Twitter handles belonging separately to the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh and the Muse Bihi Abdi, the President of Somaliland Administration, a self-proclaimed republic that claims to have unilaterally seceded from Somalia, provide an example about the need to stamp out high profile disinformation.
Bihi’s Twitter handle (with more than 175 000 followers so far) identifies himself as the President of the “Republic of Somaliland”. By allowing Bihi to use the word Republic Twitter is not taking the leader of the secessionist administration to task for falsely claiming to be the president of a sovereign country. Unlike President Mohamud’s Twitter handle, theTwitter handle of Bihi has no a blue tick.
These two Twitter handles pose tougher challenges for Musk. If a blue tick signifies a verified user, would Twitter allow for a user to boast a false political title (in this case Bihi claiming to be the president of a non-existent republic waging a secession war in Northern Somalia, for example).? Twitter does not seem to have a policy to deal with parody accounts that assume a false political identity. Would Twitter allow a Governor of a state in the United States to claim to be President on the basis of unilateral secession? Bihi should either drop the designation Republic and settle for The President of Somaliland or have his account flagged as a disinformation-peddling handle.
We are not living in a planet of “alternative facts”. Twitter faces a moment of truth in its overhauled policies under Elon Musk. Twitter handles for high profile politicians should be setting a good example for other users to fight disinformation or fake news.
