Facebook, Twitter reverse changes meant to curb vote misinformation

Although election conspiracies pose less of a threat now, with US President Donald Trump’s campaign lawsuits failing and Joe Biden’s victory confirmed by the Electoral College, the companies are going back to their old rules just when they may soon face a public-health information problem around the Covid-19 vaccines. — AFP

Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc reversed changes to their content policies that were implemented to stem the viral spread of misinformation about November’s US presidential election, saying the temporary changes are no longer needed.

Twitter had made it harder to retweet others’ posts, encouraging people to add commentary before posting something. The company said it will return to one-click retweets, after seeing a 20% decrease in sharing following the change. After the election, Facebook boosted news sources it considered authoritative on its social network, to make sure users were getting high-quality information on the outcome, but that problem isn’t as urgent anymore. "This was a temporary change we made,” the company said in a statement.