On Wednesday, Twitter Inc. said that it will begin removing tweets that are false or misleading and say that COVID-19 vaccinations could be harmful. False claims saying that these vaccines will cause harm intentionally or control population or that it is “a deliberate conspiracy,” will no longer be allowed on the platform.
The policy update comes when Americans have started receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Twitter bans misinformation about the adverse effects after receiving this vaccine.
During the pandemic conspiracy theories and misinformation about many aspects of the coronavirus as well as its potential vaccines have been floating unchecked.
Twitter said that it would probably label or place warnings on tweets with “unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information” about the vaccines, from early next year.
A spokeswoman for the company said that they would determine which vaccine information was harmful enough to be removed by consulting with public health partners.
Earlier on, the company asked users to remove tweets with false or misleading information about the coronavirus including its nature, efficacy of preventive measures or treatments, official regulations and false information about risk of infection or death. The company hides such tweets. It blocks users from posting again until the tweets are removed by them.
Twitter said that the enforcement of the new updated policy would begin from December 21. They also said that they would expand actions in the next few weeks.
