Under the leadership of billionaire Musk, the social media platform has abandoned its efforts to prevent the spread of dangerous misinformation on its platform.
The company said on its website that it would no longer enforce the misleading information policy.
Public health responses have been hampered by a plague of misinformation.
At the end of 2020, the World Health Organization put out a call to action to address what it called the " infodemic," which aimed to "mitigate harm from health misinformation" that can cause confusion, distrust, and harmful risk-taking behaviors. The WHO started a campaign to fight back against myths, such as the fact that medical masks don't cause oxygen deprivation and that drinking bleach won't hurt you.
In a press briefing earlier this year, O'Brien noted that false and misleading information on social media is not innocuous. O'Brien said that this is not just a matter of chatter on social media. It has an impact on what people do and what they choose to do. We take it very seriously.
The problem has been tenacious and has hampered health responses. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, people who were hesitant about getting vaccine or against it entirely were more likely to get their vaccine information from social media. A KFF poll in November found that 78 percent of US adults believed at least one of the eight myths about the vaccine.
AdvertisementRepublican politicians amplify much of the misinformation in the US, which leads to differing health outcomes. The correlation between Republican political affiliation and increased use of ineffective COVID-19 treatments was found in a study. The spread of misinformation has led to the deaths of people. In the first two years of the Pandemic, counties with a majority of Republican voters experienced more deaths than counties with a majority of Democratic voters.
The executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme said in a press conference earlier this year that good information is life-saving. It's more life-saving than having a vaccine because bad information can lead to bad places.
New policies that challenged accounts, removed false or misleading content, annotated potentially misleading content, and banned violating accounts were unveiled by the company. Prior to Musk's takeover, the company boasted that it had removed 97,674 pieces of content since 2020 because of its COVID-19 misinformation policy.
The company wrote that the continued enforcement of its misinformation policies would make it easier for users to find credible information during the Pandemic.
The priorities of the company have changed. There is a murky relationship between Musk and COVID. The coronaviruses panic is dumb and there is a misconception that children are immune to COVID-19. He later supported vaccinations.
Yesterday, Musk threatened to pull the app from the App Store if Apple didn't stop advertising onTwitter. Musk accused Apple of being a big fan of free speech and of being a big fan of censorship.
Health officials are likely to be more concerned about misinformation on social media platforms as a result of the devolution of credible content.
WHO's Mike Ryan said earlier this year that when anyone reaches a position in life where they have so much influence over the way information is shared with communities, they take on a huge responsibility. We wish Mr. Musk good fortune in improving the quality of information we receive.
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