Twitter abandons its Covid misinformation policy under Elon Musk

Twitter has abandoned its Covid misinformation policy, in yet another reversal under Elon Musk.

Until now, Twitter would remove posts that are false and likely to cause harm, such as sharing wrong information about how the virus was spread.

But in a new update to the policy, it announced that it is no longer enforcing the policy. It abandoned it as of 23 November, it said in a quiet update to the original policy posted on Twitter’s original blog.

Twitter first defined its current Covid misinformation policy in a blog posted in April 2020, and it has gone through a number of changes since then. At the time, it said ti was intended as a way to help people connect with others and find reliable updates, while keeping misleading information off the platform.

It was introduced alongside a host of other updates, which included a special section on the site for finding updates from officials and experts.

The central part of the policy allows Twitter to remove posts that are engaged in harmful misinformation. If an account repeatedly shares such posts, the account could also be suspended entirely.

Such potentially problematic posts were evaluated using three metrics. They had to be an assertion of a fact rather than an opinion, be making a claim that was demonstrably false, and do so in a way that would cause harm if people were to believe it.

Some posts were also given a special label or warning if they were still misleading but less likely to cause harm if people believed them. Such posts would also be made less visible.

Mr Musk himself has been criticised for his posts about coronavirus on Twitter, though he is not thought to have been censured under the rules.

Early in the pandemic, for instance, he said that panic over the coronavirus was “dumb” and suggested that children could not get the virus.

“Kids are essentially immune, but elderly with existing conditions are vulnerable. Family gatherings with close contact between kids & grandparents probably most risky,” he wrote in a tweet in March, amid lockdowns.

Twitter said at the time that it looks at such tweets with a view to the “overall context and conclusion” and concluded that Mr Musk had not broken its rules.