Twitter will urge high-profile political accounts to take increased security measures ahead of the US election .
In a blog post, Twitter said that administration officials, members of Congress, political campaigns, major news outlets, political journalists and other government officials will be asked to take enhanced security measures ahead of the election.
In the coming days, Twitter will automatically enable protection for these accounts, while also suggesting that these high-profile users enable two-factor authentication. These accounts should also use strong passwords.
"Voters, political candidates, elected officials, and journalists rely on Twitter every day to share and find reliable news and information about elections, and we take that responsibility very seriously," Twitter wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
These security guidelines will be delivered via an in-app notification to specific election-related users. The social media platform says it will continue to notify these accounts about additional steps they can take to protect their accounts as the 2020 election approaches. The company also says it will implement internal security controls for these accounts, including new methods for responding to suspicious activity and rapid account recovery in the event of a breach.
"As we learn from past security incidents and implement changes, we are also focused on maintaining the security of high-profile Twitter accounts during the 2020 US election."
For months, election experts have warned that political actors could misreport election results before they are finalized, with chaotic and potentially unreliable practices spreading through media and social media. Facebook and Twitter have changed their rules to either flag or remove posts that prematurely declare results or make allegations of voter fraud. If prominent accounts are hacked to spread misinformation, the chaos could increase significantly.
The new focus on prominent accounts follows one of the largest breaches Twitter has suffered in its history. In July, accounts belonging to political figures including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Michael Bloomberg were compromised by hackers for use in a massive bitcoin scam. In response to the breach, the social media platform blocked all new tweets from any verified user. Thursday’s announcement appears to be an effort to prevent such breaches in the future as the election approaches.
Ahead of the election, Twitter has reworked its content policies and introduced new features to help users find reliable information.
On Tuesday, Twitter launched its election network with voting information in both English and Spanish, appearing above the “Explore” tab for US users, and will include excerpts from “trusted news sources” and other content such as live stream discussions ,according to information from The Verge.
