Twitter ends policy to combat misinformation about Covid.
This measure encourages a potential increase in false claims about the disease, amid rising cases in China and other parts of the world.
(Reuters)- Twitter Inc. has reversed a policy aimed at combating COVID-19-related misinformation on the social media platform, risking a potential increase in false claims even as cases surge in China and other parts of the world.
The change also comes amid concerns about Twitter's ability to combat misinformation after it laid off about half of its staff, including those involved in content moderation, under new CEO Elon Musk.
"As of November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policy," according to an update on its blog page. The update was first reported by CNN on Tuesday.
The specific measures that Twitter will abandon were not immediately clear, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
At the start of COVID-19 in 2020, Twitter implemented a series of measures, including labels and warning messages on tweets with disputed information about the health crisis and a framework for users to remove tweets that presented harmful false claims related to vaccines.
Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Facebook and YouTube services, owned by Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), have employed similar measures, which are currently in effect.
Earlier this year, Twitter said that since March 2021 it had stopped enforcing a "civic integrity policy" related to lies about the 2020 US presidential election.
Billionaire Musk took over Twitter on October 27, paying $44 billion for the company, and acted quickly to initiate a series of changes to the products and staff. Musk said on October 29 that he would create a content moderation board with "widely diverse viewpoints."
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