Covid-19: Twitter escalates moderation of misleading content around virus

The company will require users to remove tweets that deny expert guidance, encourage fake or ineffective treatments and preventions or falsely purport to be from experts or authorities. — AFP

Twitter Inc said on March 18 that it’s expanding its content moderation rules to capture more forms of misinformation around the novel coronavirus, following a similar escalation of measures from Facebook Inc earlier in the day.

The company will require users to remove tweets that deny expert guidance, encourage fake or ineffective treatments and preventions or falsely purport to be from experts or authorities. The goal is to capture anything “that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus”, it tweeted. Twitter will also take action against claims alleging that particular groups or nationalities are more susceptible to Covid-19, calling out anyone suggesting that Chinese people are more likely to have the disease.