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Under the guidance of Elon Musk, Twitter has ended its Covid-19 misleading information policy that resulted in the suspension of thousands of accounts and content removed from the platform.
As the Associated Press reported, Twitter users noticed that the company changed its Covid misleading information policy Monday night. An update from Twitter’s online rules stated, “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”
The same message was also added to Twitter’s transparency page for Covid misinformation, Fox Business noted. The policy was also removed from Twitter’s “How we address misinformation on Twitter” section and the URL for the misinformation policy now redirects users to Twitter’s Help Center.
Per Fox Business, Twitter implemented its Covid-19 misinformation policy in March 2020, disclosing that content contradicting “authoritative sources” on the virus would be taken down. The policy later extended to posts sharing “misleading information” about the Covid vaccines.
11,230 accounts were suspended for violating the policy, with more than 11.72 million accounts challenged and 97,674 posts removed from Twitter as of September 2022, the outlet added.
Following the new Twitter update, users began to celebrate the demise of the company’s dubious policy.
“This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options,” America’s Frontline Doctors founder Dr. Simone Gold tweeted. “A win for free speech and medical freedom!”
The end of Twitter’s repressive Covid policy is among the many changes the platform has gone through since Musk acquired the company for $44 billion, as RSBN reported.
A recent report revealed that prominent Republicans were experiencing a boost in followers, while Democrats have lost thousands in the weeks under Musk, per RSBN.
Data from ProPublica’s Represent tool showed that Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan have gained more than 300,000 followers, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, have all lost 100,000 followers.
Under Musk, President Donald Trump’s account was reinstated after he became the first sitting president to be booted off a social media platform.
Similarly, Rep. Greene’s personal Twitter account made a comeback after the “unelected big tech oligarchs” permanently banned it earlier this year for “Covid misinformation.”
