As the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines expands, people continue to turn to Twitter to find the latest authoritative public health information. Continuing its efforts to remove harmful and misleading information from the platform, Twitter will now be applying labels to Tweets that may contain misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines.

Starting today, labels will appear in the account’s display language and may link to either the curated content tab and the official public health information or the Twitter Rules page. Twitter’s team will initially apply labels to content that violates Twitter’s policies. Those assessments will be used to further inform Twitter’s automated tools to identify and label similar content across the service.

In addition to labels, Twitter will be introducing a strike system that will determine when further enforcement is necessary. The strike system will help educate the public on Twitter’s policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on the platform, particularly for repeated, moderate and high-severity rule violations.

Repeated violations of the COVID-19 policy will be enforced on the basis of the number of strikes an account has accrued for infringing Twitter’s policies:

  • One strike: no account-level action
  • Two strikes: 12-hour account lock
  • Three strikes: 12-hour account lock
  • Four strikes: 7-day account lock
  • Five or more strikes: permanent suspension

Twitter is committed to protecting the public conversation, with a goal to make it easy to find verified information. In December 2020, Twitter shared updates on its work to protect the public conversation surrounding COVID-19. Since introducing its COVID-19 guidance, the platform has permanently suspended 2,400 accounts and challenged 11.5 million accounts worldwide.

Twitter has continued to prioritize this goal, with the launch of a dedicated COVID-19 search prompt feature. When the term ‘COVID-19’ is searched on the platform, credible and authoritative content appears at the top of the search results. This has now been expanded to over 80 countries worldwide to date and is currently available in 29 languages. In some countries, the prompts now include an additional button which links to information specific to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Additionally, Twitter continues to partner with organizations like Team Halo, UNICEF, NHS, and the Vaccine Confidence Project. To support the vaccination drive, Twitter has activated an emoji when #Vaccinated is Tweeted, building upon its earlier efforts to encourage people to #StayHome, #WashHands, and #WearAMask. Twitter also continues to host a weekly live Q&A on an event page for the World Health Organization at #AskWHO.

As health authorities deepen their understanding of COVID-19 and vaccination programs around the world are rolled-out, Twitter continues to amplify the most current, up-to-date, and authoritative information on the platform by partnering with  experts and consulting with local, national, and global public health authorities worldwide.

Send us your press releases to pressrelease.zawya@refinitiv.com

© Press Release 2021

Disclaimer: The contents of this press release was provided from an external third party provider. This website is not responsible for, and does not control, such external content. This content is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis and has not been edited in any way. Neither this website nor our affiliates guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions expressed in this press release.

The press release is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Neither this website nor our affiliates shall be liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the content, or for any actions taken by you in reliance thereon. You expressly agree that your use of the information within this article is at your sole risk.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this website, its parent company, its subsidiaries, its affiliates and the respective shareholders, directors, officers, employees, agents, advertisers, content providers and licensors will not be liable (jointly or severally) to you for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, incidental, punitive or exemplary damages, including without limitation, lost profits, lost savings and lost revenues, whether in negligence, tort, contract or any other theory of liability, even if the parties have been advised of the possibility or could have foreseen any such damages.