Elon Musk's Twitter lifts rule against Covid misinformation

Elon Musk's Twitter lifts rule against Covid misinformation

A move by Elon Musk to stop enforcing a Twitter policy against Covid falsehoods feeds into fears that misinformation will flourish on the platform.
A move by Elon Musk to stop enforcing a Twitter policy against Covid falsehoods feeds into fears that misinformation will flourish on the platform.. Photo: Frederic J. BROWN, Constanza HEVIA / AFP/File
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: How media literate are you? Click to take a quiz – bust fake news with Legit.ng!

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 November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 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.

Read also

Musk signals Twitter going to 'war' with Apple

As of September of this year, Twitter had suspended 11,230 accounts under the policy, the blog stated.

PAY ATTENTION: Subscribe to Digital Talk newsletter to receive must-know business stories and succeed BIG!

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.

Since taking over the platform last month, Musk has cut around half of Twitter's workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation, while an unknown number of others have voluntarily quit.

Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter who left after Musk took over, said during an interview Tuesday at a Knight Foundation conference that he was not certain how many employees were left at the company to moderate content.

Read also

Twitter aims to diversify beyond advertising, but can it be done?

"I couldn't tell you, because our corporate directory had been turned off since the acquisition and it was nearly impossible to actually know conclusively who was still left at Twitter," Roth said when asked by interviewer Kara Swisher.

"It was that chaotic."

Musk believes that all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter, and on Monday described his actions as a "revolution against online censorship in America."

Though Musk says Twitter is seeing record high engagement with him at the helm, his approach has startled the company's major moneymaker -- advertisers.

In recent weeks, half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers have announced they are suspending or have otherwise "seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter," an analysis conducted by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters found.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.