Twitter has quietly dropped its policy against sharing false or misleading information about COVID-19.
Under the policy, tweets containing misleading information about the disease may be labeled with corrective information about the claim.
Seriously harmful tweets that violate policies may be deleted, and users are temporarily locked out of their accounts to prevent them from sharing more misinformation.
Twitter It did not announce the change, but added a note to a page on its website outlining its COVID-19 policy.
“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter will no longer enforce the COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy,” the note said.
The update appeared below a line that still read: “As the international community collectively confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter is helping people find reliable information, connect with others and follow what’s happening in real time.”
social media giant Coronavirus disease The misleading information policy no longer appears on the company’s website, but it can be viewed using a cached version of the page.
It reveals that Twitter operates a strikeout system in which those whose tweets are tagged receive one strikeout and those whose tweets are deleted receive two strikeouts.
One strike took no action, but users with two or three strikes were locked out of their accounts for 12 hours, users with four strikes were locked out for seven days, and repeat offenders with five or more strikes were permanently suspended.
According to information posted by Twitter, the platform suspended more than 11,000 accounts and removed nearly 98,000 pieces of content that violated its COVID misinformation policy between January 2022 and September 2022.
The site also reduces the visibility of tweets or accounts deemed in violation of its policies by stopping tweets or retweets from appearing in certain parts of Twitter, showing their replies lower in the conversation, and placing them Tweets or accounts for are excluded from recommendations. website.
Content moderation team fired
Policy change comes after Elon Musk Fired half of Twitter’s staff The teams responsible for content moderation, human rights and communications have taken a hit after taking over the company.
Hundreds more employees are believed to have left the company After Musk’s ultimatum Get his employees to sign up for “intensive long hours” or leave.
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Sky News attempted to contact Twitter, but there was no contact information on its website, and the official Twitter newsletter account has been dormant since October 30.
Musk announces “amnesty” suspension of accounts
Last week Twitter reinstated the personal account of American far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Green, Banned in January for violating its COVID misinformation policy.
Musk also announced that he would grant “amnesty” to suspended accounts after releasing a poll asking users to vote to reinstate accounts that had not “broken the law or participated in egregious spam.”
The poll, an unscientific survey and easily influenced by bots, came out with 72% saying “yes”.
“The people have spoken. Amnesty starts next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, using a Latin phrase that means “voice of the people, voice of God.”
Advertisers and users have left the site over concerns about verification and hate speech.