As The Verge and several users found out, Twitter’s new warning label for hacked materials can be tricked to be displayed on any tweet. This is possible if the genuine URL being shared is tuned into a specially crafted one, and shared along with a flagged URL. Twitter is yet to rectify this trick and make the feature useful as intended.
Twitter’s New Warning Label For Hacking
Twitter is one of the popular platforms that’s fighting hard to eradicate misinformation. It has earlier introduced warning labels on sensitive content like COVID-19 and the US elections to avoid people making decisions on unverified information, even though it’s from relevant people and authorities.
Now, it has introduced warning labels on tweets sharing hacking-related information. It starts displaying these labels if the stories are deemed to have any content obtained from hacking or leaked data. While this could be a useful feature, users have found a way to trick this system and display the label on any tweet!
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) February 24, 2021
As spotted by The Verge on a tweet from The Grayzone, and later tested by The Verge’s Tom Warren, “Twitter also displays the warning if you trick it into doing so by using a specially crafted link to a genuine URL combined with the flagged one. This tricks Twitter’s card-based system into accidentally flagging tweets with this new warning.”
This manipulation is easy and could trick others if did. And while Twitter is yet to acknowledge and rectify, users are mocking the faulted function, as some are even reporting crashes on their Android clients if they try to like such tweets. Twitter has faced several controversies due to such faulty (since automated) labeling in past.
