America: Twitter will no longer enforce its anti-Covid-19 misinformation policy, raising concerns among public health professionals and social media researchers that the change could be counterproductive if it discourages vaccinations and other measures to combat the still-spreading virus. There can be serious consequences.
A one-sentence update to Twitter's online policies was spotted Monday night by Observer users, who noted that the COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy will no longer be in effect as of November 23, 2022.
As of Tuesday, some Twitter accounts were experimenting with the new restrictions and applauding the laissez-faire attitude of the platform, which has come after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
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Simone Gould, a doctor and prominent disseminator of COVID-19 misinformation, tweeted that "this policy was used to silence people around the world who questioned the media story about the virus and treatment options." was picked up." "Victory to freedom of speech and medicine!"
Public health officials were disappointed by Twitter's decision to remove false claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but warned it could encourage the spread of other misinformation about the virus or the safety and efficacy of vaccines .
Bad news," epidemiologist Eric Feigel-Ding tweeted, urging users to fight misinformation about the virus instead of leaving Twitter. "Stay people, don't give them the town square!"
Paul Russo, a social media researcher and dean of the Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University in New York, said Twitter's efforts to curb false claims about COVID were not perfect, adding that the company's decision to change course is a sacrifice to its users. Its duty to.
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According to Russo, Twitter's recent action may eventually turn away some users and even advertisers. Several well-known brands have already suspended their Twitter ads due to concerns about the future of the platform.
According to Russo, it is solely the platform's responsibility to keep users safe from harmful content. The situation is absolutely unacceptable.
Meanwhile, the virus is still spreading. As of Monday, there were an average of about 38,800 new Covid cases per day across the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University - significantly fewer than last winter but a major decrease due to a lack of testing and reporting. According to the most recent federal daily average, 313 people with COVID-19 die every day and about 28,100 are hospitalized.
Deaths and cases increased from two weeks ago. However, a fifth of the US population has not been vaccinated, most people have not received the latest boosters, and many have stopped wearing masks.
Musk has expressed interest in reversing several previous guidelines for the platform's misinformation defense system. Musk himself has spread Kovid's misinformation on Twitter.
Musk announced last week that he would be giving an "amnesty" to account holders who were banned from Twitter. Additionally, he reinstated the accounts of several individuals who spread false information on COVID, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account was suspended earlier this year for repeatedly breaking Twitter's COVID guidelines .
Green's recent tweets question the efficacy of masks and make baseless claims about the safety of Covid vaccines.
Since the pandemic began, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been struggling to respond to the flood of false information about the virus, its causes and response to it.
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Twitter's policy, which went into effect in January 2020, prohibits making false statements about COVID-19 that could have a negative impact in the real world. According to Twitter's latest figures, nearly 100,000 pieces of content were removed from the site and more than 11,000 accounts were suspended for breaking the rules.
