Social-Media
Twitter says it's starting to withdraw the COVID-19 misinformation vaccine
Twitter announced Wednesday that it would delete tweets that make false or misleading statements about COVID-19 vaccinations.
Any tweets that say that vaccinations "intendedly harm control populations" or invoke conspiracy theories will be deleted, according to Twitter's blog post. Tweets wrongly claiming that COVID-19 does not exist or that "widely debunked" arguments should also be withdrawn. The implementation of the new policy will begin next week.
Twitter can also mark or put alerts on tweets that push vaccine conspiracy theories early next year. These branded tweets may be connected to authoritative public health information, similar to how Twitter guided users to verify voting information during the 2020 election.
We will pursue this policy in close consultation with local, national and global public health authorities around the world and will strive to be iterative and transparent in our approach, said the blog post.
Twitter's latest strategy comes as health care staff around the US have begun to receive VOVID-19 vaccinations after the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. These vaccines have been the subject of various conspiracy theories, including unfounded reports that they contain microchips or are used to modify DNA.
The new rules build on policies related to coronavirus adopted by Twitter earlier this year. In March, Twitter rolled out the COVID-19 tab on its Explore page and collaborated with organizations such as the World Health Organization to provide reputable coronavirus information on its website.
