We are still living with COVID-19 after more than two years since the beginning of the pandemic. According to World Health Organization, the pandemic claimed more than 6.6 million lives around the world.
AP reported that Twitter is no longer enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policy starting 23 November 2023. Public health officials and experts were unhappy with Twitter’s decision to stop removing false statements regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but also warned that it might encourage other false statements about the virus or the security and efficacy of vaccines.
Paul Russo, a social media researcher and dean of the Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University in New York, said the company’s choice to change course is a betrayal of its duty to its users, even though Twitter’s efforts to curb false statements regarding COVID weren’t entirely successful. This decision could ultimately drive away some users and even advertisers.
Twitter already lost 50 of its top 100 advertisers ever since Elon Musk took over and these 50 companies spent nearly USD 2 billion advertising on Twitter.
Twitter’s misinformation policy, which went into effect in January 2020, forbade making false statements on COVID-19 that the company judged could have negative effects in the real world. According to Twitter’s most recent statistics, approximately 100,000 pieces of content were removed from the site and more than 11,000 accounts were suspended for breaking the rules.
Twitter has had trouble enforcing its policies barring COVID disinformation. It was challenging to determine just how the platform’s policies may have changed because posts containing false claims about natural cures or vaccinations could still be found there.
A search for terms frequently linked with COVID disinformation turned up a tonne of misleading content as well as automated links to reliable sources that could provide more information about the virus.
If you want accurate and trustworthy sources about COVID, maybe try avoiding getting your information from Twitter for now.
