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Twitter is bringing back candidate labels for the 2020 US elections

The company says it will also start verifying candidate accounts this week.

Ahead of the US elections next year, Twitter says it's bringing back election labels, a feature the company introduced during the 2018 midterms to help increase the visibility of political tweets.

As before, Twitter will only assign the labels to candidates running for governor, the US Senate or House of Representatives. You can expect to see the first labels appear on Twitter starting on March 3rd, with more coming after each state's filing deadline. The labels will appear on a candidate's profile page, as well as any tweets and retweets they share, including ones that publications embed on their websites. They will tell you the office the individual is running for, as well as in what state and district. You'll be able to identify the labels by the small ballot box icon that accompanies them.

Starting this week, Twitter says it will also begin verifying candidates who qualify for the primaries. In both instances, the company is partnering with Ballotpedia, a non-profit organization that publishes nonpartisan information on local, state and federal politics, to ensure the correct accounts are verified or get an election label.

While small, the two measures are important for transparency. One week before the 2018 midterms, Twitter says 13 percent of the conversations related to the elections included the company's labels, helping users identify where tweets were coming from.