Video curation and live broadcasts at Twitter

One of the most valuable uses of social media and Twitter is to access live broadcasts and videos directly from the scene during ongoing events. The Curation team was highly skilled at discovering and verifying video content during a range of live events, whether it was a protest in Russia, behind the scene interviews on a red carpet or live broadcasts for ongoing elections.

Here are some things to consider when curating live video and broadcasts.

On the ground, first person accounts: Sharing live footage, videos and broadcasts from the ground tells a developing story more vividly. I personally used boolean searches on Tweetdeck to help identify sources and content based on geo-location, engagement and keywords. Here you can see an example of a Moment the team curated during the January 6 insurrection, specifically capturing imagery.

Consider private versus public individuals: When choosing commentary, videos and photos from individuals, always consider whether the person is a public or private individual, especially if the topic could put their safety at risk. One example I can think of is a private individual who might be arrested for peaceful demonstration in their country — amplifying these voices is important but should be weighed with whether it would put the person in a dangerous situation. In this case, we might look for videos/broadcasts from community leaders and public activists, or local journalists covering the scene. When necessary, ask for permission to use the content. Below you can see how the team curated a retrospective of what unfolded after George Floyd’s death, being very thoughtful about what sources and voices to include.

Verification is king: It’s important to verify every video individually, whether it’s cross-referencing still images on a service like TinEye or using Google Maps to compare landmarks, even when credible organizations are running with it.

Choose a variety of content: Below you can see a video carousel that was curated by the team during the 2020 debates. Multiple news organizations were streaming and we selected high quality experiences from a variety of media. While it wasn’t the case with debates, if the event had the potential to turn graphic, we regularly monitored the broadcasts. If there was no one available to monitor live streams, the broadcasts were temporarily removed and added back in later when it wrapped up.