Twitter has reversed a policy aimed at combating COVID misinformation on the social media platform under new boss Elon Musk.
According to a post on Twitter’s site, “from November 23, 2022, Twitter will no longer enforce the COVID-19 false information policy.”
Twitter under Elon Musk drops COVID misinformation policy
The rollback of the important policy was not announced. Some users discovered the update on Twitter’s blog sometime around Tuesday and posted about it.
The move also comes despite concerns about Twitter’s capacity to tackle disinformation after the company laid off around half of its workforce. Among the fired employees, some were responsible for content moderation.
In 2020, Twitter introduced the policy to screen out “harmful misinformation” about COVID and vaccinations. The platform was able to censor and mark tweets that contained inaccurate facts that posed a significant risk to public health.
Banned accounts might retrieve after the policy shift
From January 2020 and September 2022, Twitter terminated over 11,200 accounts and removed approximately 100,000 pieces of content for violating their policy.
It follows as Musk has promised to quickly recover previously banned Twitter accounts. These profiles may include a few of the 11,000 banned accounts under the earlier coronavirus regulations.
The explanation for the massive policy shift, as well as its discreet launch, remains unknown. Over the last few years, the Tesla CEO has been a vocal opponent of strict social distancing policies and vaccine regimens.
Following Musk’s takeover, there have been significant changes in the platform, from verified account badges to the revival of banned accounts.
