KOCHI:
During the ongoing second COVID-19 wave in India, Twitter is witnessing a people’s movement on the service as many are turning to it to seek and offer help. Twitter at its end is taking several steps to support these conversations. Here are some of the features that people can utilise to make the most of Twitter during this COVID-19 crisis:
● Event Pages
Twitter has introduced dedicated Event Pages for COVID-19 where people can find relevant information from reliable sources on the service. To help them easily scroll through conversations and find help, Twitter has recently introduced pages to guide people to credible Tweets in each State. The Kerala Page shows local updates from doctors, journalists and concerned citizens from the region. Moreover, the COVID-19 hub on the service’s Explore tab, a COVID-19 SOS page, Moments pages for vaccine safety, how to stay safe, also detail out relevant information from credible authorities.
● Twitter Spaces
Twitter is committed to serving the public conversation, especially given the COVID-19 crisis in India. Earlier this week, we prioritised the rollout of Twitter Spaces in the country, and while globally only those with 600 or more followers can host a Space, in India everyone has access to host and tune into a Space on Android and iOS. Along with our global announcement, we also shared more about how people can stay safe in Spaces, including building safety controls for both hosts and speakers. People can also report and block others in Spaces, or report a Space. We are also working on some additional new features that you can read about in detail on our blog. For those who aren’t familiar with Spaces, it is a new way to express on Twitter that lets people come together in an intimate environment to have live audio conversations.
● Twitter Lists
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.
● Prompts
As India rolls out vaccines to everyone above the age of 18 years, Twitter has taken steps to keep the public informed about vaccine availability, eligibility, and other updates. To surface credible COVID-19 information, it has introduced home Timeline prompts featuring the latest information about COVID-19 vaccines in both English and Hindi.
In addition to these features, Twitter is also fortifying its COVID-19 misinformation policy to protect the public conversation, and has also launched an emoji in 11 Indian languages, including Malayalam, to amplify the support that people have been extending to each other on the service.
