On 21st February 2018, Medianama held a discussion in Delhi, on Fake News and Online Content Regulation, with support from Facebook. The following are notes from a talk on ‘Bots and misinformation’ by Mahima Kaul, the Public Policy Head of Twitter India. Twitter in many ways has been in the eye of the storm when it comes to fake news. The platform has come out an admitted that bots using it may have played a role in influencing the 2016 US presidential elections. The company has promised and implemented various measures it feels will help fight misinformation on its platform. Mahima Kaul, the Public Policy Head of Twitter speaking at the NAMApolicy event elaborated, "Twitter looks at itself as a platform that's meant to keep people informed about what is happening in the world and what are other people doing. You have access now to a lot of people you didn't maybe ten years ago. We also allow pseudonyms and anonymity to protect that space for people who might want to speak about issues but may not want to use their real names." Kaul continued, "We do believe that our platform on a certain level does also if used correctly, provide the antidote to a lot of the misinformation and fake news that goes around. This is because we have people like journalists on our platform who are able to now do their job with a lot more speed and accuracy. Fact checkers on the platform are able to counter a…
