Twitter lifts rule against Covid misinformation

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter said it has stopped enforcing a policy intended to prevent the spread of Covid misinformation, as new owner Elon Musk – who has clashed previously with US officials over pandemic safety rules – continues to remake its content moderation policies.

The move comes after the mercurial billionaire reinstated a slew of accounts on the social media network that had previously been banned for violating its content rules, such as that of former president Donald Trump.

“Effective Nov 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid19 misleading information policy,” read a message posted at a Twitter transparency web page.

During the pandemic, Twitter took to labeling misleading tweets about Covid and booting users who persisted in spreading such misinformation.

Banned content included statements intended to influence people to violate health authority guidelines, along with bogus cures or denial of scientific facts, according to a Twitter blog.

As of September of this year, Twitter had suspended 11,230 accounts under the policy, the blog stated. Musk, who also runs Tesla, clashed with officials in 2020 over pandemic safety orders which temporarily shut down the electric car giant’s plant in California, calling shelter in place orders “fascist” and “an outrage” that infringed on personal freedom.

Under Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” Twitter has begun reinstating roughly 62,000 accounts in what is being referred to internally as “the Big Bang,” according to Platformer news blog.