Twitter Withdraws Misinformation Policy on COVID-19, Freedom of Speech is Now Looser

The number of hate speech on Twitter is claimed to continue to decline. (photo: Twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc has dropped a policy aimed at tackling misinformation related to COVID-19 on social media platforms. This, it is believed, poses a potential risk of a spike in false claims even as cases rise again in China and some parts of the world.

The move also comes amid concerns over Twitter's ability to fight misinformation after it fired about half its staff, including those involved in content moderation, under new boss Elon Musk.

"Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter will no longer enforce its COVID-19 misleading information policy," according to an update on its blog page. This report was first reported by CNN on Tuesday, November 29.

The specific actions Twitter will take are unclear, and the company did not immediately respond to requests to share more information.

At the start of COVID in 2020, Twitter implemented a number of measures including warning labels and messages on tweets with disputed information about the health crisis and a framework for requiring users to remove tweets that made harmful false claims related to vaccines.

Meta Platforms Inc's YouTube service Facebook and Alphabet Inc implemented similar measures, which are still being implemented.

Earlier this year, Twitter said that since March 2021 it had stopped enforcing its "policy of civil integrity" regarding lies about the 2020 US Presidential election.

Musk has moved quickly to initiate a number of major changes to Twitter's product and staff. Musk said on October 29 he would convene a content moderation board with "very diverse viewpoints." But so far the moderation council has not appeared.

Hate speech impressions down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels. Congrats to Twitter team! pic.twitter.com/5BWaQoIlip

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

Instead, Twitter has created a policy that allows moderation to be lost and makes the level of trust in information on this platform decrease. It keeps many advertisers off Twitter.

Musk, on the other hand, continues to glorify freedom of speech, which he then tweets on his Twitter account and gets many different responses from netizens.

Interestingly, at this time, hate speech on Twitter, claimed by Musk, has fallen far after the various policies he implemented on Twitter.