Twitter has stopped enforcing its COVID-19 “misleading information” policy that had resulted in nearly 100,000 pieces of content being cut from the platform and led to more than 11,000 account suspensions.
The social media giant, which was taken over by industrialist Elon Musk at the end of October, said in a report that, effective Nov. 23, Twitter is “no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”
The report included information about Twitter’s enforcement actions related to its COVID-19 content policies. Between January 2020 and September 2022, there were 11.72 million accounts challenged, 11,230 accounts were suspended, and 97,674 pieces of content removed.
The policy, which was introduced to curb the spread of “harmful misinformation” related to COVID-19, was praised by some, including U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who in an advisory (pdf) on “building a healthy information environment” cited Twitter’s rules as a model for companies to fight misinformation….