By Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc said on Wednesday that users will be required to remove new tweets that advance harmful false or misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccinations, in an expansion of its rules on coronavirus misinformation.
The social media company said in a blog post that users could be required to remove tweets with false claims that suggest vaccines are “used to intentionally cause harm to or control populations, including statements about vaccines that invoke a deliberate conspiracy.”
The policy, announced the same week that the first Americans received COVID-19 vaccinations as part of a mass immunization campaign, will also apply to false claims that the pandemic is not real or serious and vaccinations are unnecessary. It will also apply to false claims that have been widely debunked about adverse effects of receiving such vaccines.
Conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus and its possible vaccines have proliferated on social media platforms during the pandemic.
Twitter said that starting early next year, it may also label or place a warning on tweets that advance “unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information” about the vaccines.
A Twitter spokeswoman said the company would determine with public health partners which vaccine misinformation was harmful enough to warrant removal.
Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc-owned Google have both in recent weeks announced bans on false claims about the vaccine that go against information from public health experts.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford; Editing by Howard Goller)
