Twitter Stops Enforcing COVID Misinformation Policy

Twitter has decided to take a step back from its previous strict enforcement of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, according to an announcement on the platform. It’s like when a teacher starts off the semester with a zero-tolerance policy for late assignments, but then realizes it’s causing unnecessary stress and decides to be a bit more lenient. By relaxing the policy, Twitter is essentially saying that they will not actively monitor and remove false COVID-19 information as strictly as before. Instead, they will focus more on promoting accurate and reliable information about the virus. Maybe Twitter learned that having too strict of a policy was causing unnecessary backlash or maybe they recognize the difficulty in quickly verifying every piece of information that gets shared on the platform. Regardless, this change could have implications for the spread of misinformation and the trustworthiness of information on social media platforms. If you’re interested in learning more about how social media platforms handle misinformation, you should dive into some research on the topic!