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Twitter announced Wednesday that it will remove tweets that make false or misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines.
Any tweet that claims that vaccines “intentionally harm control populations” or invoke conspiracy theories will be subject to removal, according to the Twitter blog post. Tweets that falsely suggest that COVID-19 does not exist or that defend “widely discredited” claims can also be removed. Enforcement of the new policy will begin next week.
Twitter may also tag or place warnings in tweets promoting vaccine conspiracy theories beginning early next year. These tagged tweets could be linked to authoritative public health information, similar to how Twitter directed users to verified voting information during the 2020 elections.
“We will enforce this policy in close consultation with local, national and global public health authorities around the world, and we will strive to be iterative and transparent in our approach,” the blog post read.
Twitter’s new policy comes as healthcare workers in the US began receiving COVID-19 vaccines after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. These vaccines have been the subject of countless conspiracy theories, including false accusations that they contain microchips or are used to alter DNA.
The new rules expand on the coronavirus-related policies implemented by Twitter earlier this year. In March, Twitter launched a COVID-19 tab on its Explore page and associated with organizations such as the World Health Organization to provide reliable information about the coronavirus on its platform.
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