Has the threat of COVID misinformation passed?

The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web

COVID misinformation.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images)

Elon Musk continued easing Twitter restrictions this week, with the social media platform quietly ending enforcement of its policy against spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Twitter cracked down on misleading information about the coronavirus in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic had just hit the United States. Misconceptions, confusion, and outright lies about the virus were rampant, fueling anxiety about how it was transmitted and how to avoid getting infected.

Since then, vaccines have become widespread, infections and deaths are way down from the pandemic's peak, and people have emerged from lockdowns to resume their normal lives. Daily new infections were averaging 45,219 on Nov. 30, with 262 deaths — down from more than 4,000 per day from the winter surge in early 2021. Has the time come to drop rules against COVID misinformation, or does this threaten to make it harder to prevent a coronavirus resurgence?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.