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Twitter will penalize those who say that vaccinated people can spread COVID [UPDATE]

CDC Twitter vaccinated people can spread covid
Source: CDC

Twitter will ban people who report that vaccinated people can spread COVID to those who are unvaccinated.

Twitter to ban people who tweet that vaccinated people can spread COVID

Reclaim the Net noticed some changes Twitter quietly made to its rules for posts on COVID, including statements that vaccinated people can spread the virus. The top of the policy page for COVID-19 suggests that the information was added in November. However, Reclaim the Net retrieved an archive of the page from December 2, which shows that the information dated November was actually added after December 2.

twitter covid rules

Screenshot: COVID-19 misleading information policy page.

The website added that one of the biggest changes to the “COVID-19 misleading information policy” was what Twitter would do to people who point out that vaccinated people can spread the virus. The policy now states that Twitter will add labels claiming to offer “corrective information” and give users a strike if they claim that “the vaccines will cause you to be sick, spread the virus, or would be more harmful than getting COVID-19.

The micro-blogging platform also said it will label posts it believe are “false or misleading claims that people who have received the vaccine can spread or shed the virus… to unvaccinated people.”

Proof that vaccinated people can spread COVID

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has stated plainly on its website that “vaccinated people can still become infected and have the potential to spread the virus to others.” And if that isn’t enough, a study published in The Lancet and covered by the BBC found the same thing.

Twitter’s policy means users with two or three strikes will have their account banned for 12 hours, while those with four strikes will be banned for seven days. Five or more strikes result in a permanent ban. Twitter also said in its recent update that it may “immediately permanently suspend accounts… if we determine that the account repeatedly violates the COVID-19 misinformation policy over a 30-day time period.”

UPDATE: After reports on Twitter’s COVID-19 policy, the platform quietly changed the word virus to vaccine in the stated point. See images below:

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Michelle Jones

Michelle Jones was a television news producer for eight years. She produced the morning news programs for the NBC affiliates in Evansville, Indiana and Huntsville, Alabama, and spent a short time at the CBS affiliate in Huntsville. She has experience as a writer and public relations expert for a wide variety of businesses. Michelle covers Breaking News at Insider Paper.







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