Twitter to remove COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

Twitter is set to crack down on misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines as the first doses begin to go out in the United States.

The social media company said Wednesday that starting next week, it will be expanding its COVID-19 misinformation policy and "may require people to remove Tweets which advance harmful false or misleading narratives about COVID-19 vaccinations."

This, Twitter said, could include posts "that invoke a deliberate conspiracy" theory about vaccines, debunked claims about the effects of receiving a vaccine, or false claims that "vaccinations are unnecessary" because "COVID-19 is not real or not serious."

The Week

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

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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

Additionally, starting early next year, Twitter said it may label tweets that "advance unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines." The site previously removed tweets with false or misleading misinformation about "preventative measures, treatments, or other precautions to mitigate" COVID-19, among other false claims.

This move comes after Facebook announced earlier this month it would be removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines "that have been debunked by public health experts" both on Facebook and Instagram. On Monday, the first American health care workers began to receive Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, and a second vaccine could potentially be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this week. Twitter said its updated policy will start being enforced on Dec. 21.