After taking over $44 billion (42.5 billion euros) of Twitter, American businessman Elon Musk has pledged to disrupt social media content moderation. After the mass recovery of blocked accounts, the billionaire went even further, stopping the fight against misinformation about Covid-19.
A brief press release from the San Francisco-based company, broadcast by the American press on Tuesday, November 29, confirmed what some had noticed for several days: “As of November 23, 2022, Twitter no longer enforces rules regarding misleading information about COVID- 19. »
Like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, during the pandemic, Twitter had special rules in place to combat medical misinformation. The platform specifically decided to report and delete posts containing misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, and then block the accounts in question after five warnings.
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“We believe this alert system will help inform the public about our policies and better reduce the spread of potentially harmful or misleading information on Twitter,” the social network explained in March 2021.
” The bad news “
But Elon Musk, the platform’s new boss, advocates an absolute vision for freedom of expression. And he has never made a secret of his opinion about the health restrictions imposed during the pandemic, especially when they meant the temporary closure of his Tesla plant in California.
“Telling people that they cannot leave their homes and that they will be arrested if they do is fascism. It’s not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their fucking freedom,” he enthused in April 2020 during a conference call for financial analysts.
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For medical experts, this change is likely to see vaccines ditched and hinder other efforts to control the virus that is still spreading.
“Bad news,” tweeted US epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, who says the 11,000 accounts banned under the old policy will soon be reinstated. An American scientist with 717,000 followers urged people not to leave Twitter, but to continue to fight misinformation about the virus. “Stop, guys, DO NOT give way to them! »
Numbers on the rise
Covid-19 infection numbers in the United States are on the rise: 38,800 new cases were reported on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, much less than in the winter of 2021-2022, but the figure is likely an underestimate due to reduced testing. .
More than 300 people die every day from Covid-19 in the country, according to the latest federal daily averages. A fifth of the population has not been vaccinated, most Americans have not received the latest boosters, and many have stopped wearing masks.
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Upon his arrival at the helm of Twitter and between two provocations, Elon Musk tried to reassure NGOs and advertisers who feared an outbreak of toxic content – hate speech, disinformation, etc. He reiterated that the platform’s rules had not changed and that the suspended accounts would not be reinstated until then. until a content moderation commission is established.
Waste of time: many brands fled, and Elon Musk, feeling betrayed, took action. He launched polls from his Twitter account that he called “the voice of the people” and reset the profile of former President Donald Trump, which was blocked in January 2021 for inciting violence. The fiery leader also asked engineers who are still working to recover some 62,000 accounts that have been banned for repeated violations, according to specialist newsletter Platformer.
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