Coronavirus: Twitter Says Can't Act on Every Harmful Tweet on COVID-19

There has been a massive surge in fake content related to new coronavirus pandemic on various social media platforms including Twitter.

By Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: 24 March 2020 17:32 IST

Coronavirus: Twitter Says Can't Act on Every Harmful Tweet on COVID-19

Twitter has listed some of the specific content it considers to be "violative and particularly harmful"

Highlights

Twitter admitted that it can't remove every misleading tweet
There has been a massive surge in fake content related to coronavirus
COVID-19 is affecting our content moderation capacities: Twitter

Twitter on Tuesday admitted that it will not be able to remove every Tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about new coronavirus (COVID-19).

There has been a massive surge in fake content related to new coronavirus pandemic on various social media platforms including Twitter.

"We want to make it clear that we will not be able to take enforcement action on every Tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about COVID-19," the company tweeted.

"COVID-19 is affecting our content moderation capacities in unique ways, and we're adjusting to meet the challenge. Right now, we're focused on content that has the highest potential of directly causing physical harm," the micro-blogging platform added.

Official government accounts engaging in conversation about the origins of the virus and global public conversation about potential emergent treatments will be permitted, unless the content contains clear incitement to take a harmful physical action.

"We're keeping our enforcement guidance under close review and are consulting with medical professionals on any update we may need to make as things continue to evolve," said Twitter.

Twitter has already listed some of the specific content it considers to be "violative and particularly harmful" and would require removal.

"We want to be clear: while we work to ensure our systems are consistent, they can sometimes lack the context that our teams bring, and this may result in us making mistakes," Twitter said.

"As a result, we will not permanently suspend any accounts based solely on our automated enforcement systems. Instead, we will continue to look for opportunities to build in human review checks where they will be most impactful".

Twitter, along with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, and YouTube last week vowed to curb misinformation on their platforms regarding COVID-19.

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