California, US

Even as Covid cases rise in China and some other parts of the world, Twitter Inc. has reversed a policy that was intended to address misinformation on the social media site, raising the possibility of an increase in false claims. 

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The decision was made amid worries about Twitter's capacity to combat false information after it let go of roughly half of its workers, including those in charge of content moderation, under the leadership of new boss Elon Musk. 

According to a blog post update, "Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy" as of November 23, 2022.

It's unclear exactly which policies the business would discontinue. 

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Twitter implemented a variety of safeguards at the start of Covid in 2020, including labels and warning messages on tweets with disputed material about the health problem and a framework to require users to remove tweets that promoted harmfully inaccurate claims about vaccines. 

Similar safeguards were used by the Facebook and YouTube services, both of which are owned by Meta Platforms Inc.

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Twitter claimed at the beginning of this year that as of March 2021, it has stopped implementing a "civic integrity policy" pertaining to false information on the 2020 US presidential election. 

The billionaire Musk promptly started a number of adjustments to the product and employees after purchasing Twitter on October 27 for $44 billion. On October 29, Musk announced that a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints" will be established.

(with inputs from agencies)