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Twitter Communications Medicine Social Networks The Internet

Twitter Broadly Bans Any COVID-19 Tweets That Could Help the Virus Spread (techcrunch.com) 169

Posted by BeauHD from the good-luck-with-that dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Wednesday, Twitter updated its safety policy to prohibit tweets that "could place people at a higher risk of transmitting COVID-19." The new policy bans tweets denying expert guidance on the virus, encouraging "fake or ineffective treatments, preventions and diagnostic techniques" as well as tweets that mislead users by pretending to be from health authorities or experts. In its blog post, Twitter says that it will "require people to remove Tweets" in these cases and we've asked the company for more clarification on what that looks like.

Twitter indicated that it will take context like account history into account in making its enforcement determinations, which it says remain unchanged. As far as having users remove offending tweets, according to the company's existing guidance "When we determine that a Tweet violated the Twitter Rules, we require the violator to remove it before they can Tweet again." A user is notified of this via email and given a chance to delete the tweet or make an appeal. While that is happening, the tweet is hidden from view. Under the ruleset, a tweet that claims "social distancing is not effective" would be subject to removal. Twitter will also require users to delete tweets telling followers to do ineffective or dangerous things like drinking bleach, even if the tweet is "made in jest" because that content can prove harmful when taken out of context. Twitter is banning tweets encouraging people to behave in a way counter to what health authorities recommend. The rules will also prohibit users from playing armchair doctor, as well as making coronavirus claims that single out groups of people based on race or nationality.
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Twitter Broadly Bans Any COVID-19 Tweets That Could Help the Virus Spread More

Twitter Broadly Bans Any COVID-19 Tweets That Could Help the Virus Spread

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  • I am not at all surprised that Twitter banned another ill-defined concept. It is like war on drugs, but in 140 characters.

    • Can we still call it Trump Flu?

      For when we know we have something, but we can't get tested for it.

      • Technically it's the Trump epidemic viral death camps.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        What is interesting the greater the testing the more positive results, which would indicate many have or have already had the virus and did not bother to test. I had an unusual flu, really mild that started with a trip to the supermarket, it was unusual in that it caused mild pains around the spine and ribs when coughing (not much coughing, really mild), lasted a week and was over, a distinct different flu and a really mild one. This will be the case for the majority apparently, only a minority get it much

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Here's the problem with arguing by analogy: situations can feel analogous because you've already decided they're the same. It's tantamount to assuming what you are trying to show.

      If the government's involvement were required for every drug transaction, the war on drugs would be a lot less futile. There is no way for misinformation to spread through Twitter without Twitter's involvement.

      Twitter obviously can't shut down all information that might be wrong. It might try machine learning methods, but those a

  • Its about China (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dishevel ( 1105119 ) on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:19PM (#59850358)
    Twitter is just doing this so that they can restrict blaming China for this shit. Watch Silicon Valley rush to the aid of their Chinese owners.

    • Re:Its about China (Score:4, Insightful)

      by lgw ( 121541 ) on Thursday March 19, 2020 @04:37PM (#59850700) Journal

      I see this as even more sinister. This is straight up banning any speech that disagrees with the official government party line. Sure, in this case I'm sure the party line is correct, but that's what makes it so sinister. Conditioning requires that the subject benefit from submitting to the conditioning. This isn't just pleasing China, it's being China.

      Oh, well, it's probably what Twitter users mostly want, so it's inevitable.

      • Anyone who uses twitter for anything other than entertainment is not the brightest anyway.

  • "require people to remove Tweets" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dentree4 ( 1424693 ) on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:24PM (#59850388)
    Having been through this before, it's simple. You login and can do nothing but delete the offending tweet. They don't just remove it, they put on a show about how your actions impact others' feelings. You have the ability to appeal, but it does nothing. You're not able to appeal whether the reports were valid, just that you didn't break the rules. The rules are that you can't offend people, and if people were offended and you will correct your behaviour or leave. It's all automated, so if enough people report you, that's it. I deleted my account the same day,
  • I think they're confusing computer viruses with real viruses.

  • I always think this is the wrong move. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Thursday March 19, 2020 @03:39PM (#59850464)
    Any time they reach for the banhammer and the censor button, I think they're making a mistake. I think the smart play, the one that would inform more people and shut down cries of censorship, would be to flag inaccurate information with an obvious warning that it is inaccurate. Facebook does this with potentially fake news stories, and while people laugh when it flags articles from the Onion, that's a pretty minor trade-off for informing people that "hey, this information might be bad, take it with a grain of salt." If you just get rid of the post, people won't learn that it's false, they might see the same thing elsewhere and think it's true.

    And on the reverse end, let's assume they do this to something less desirable, like political opinions instead of harmful bullshit. In my opinion, it's a lot less harmful to falsely flag something as inaccurate than it is to falsely get rid of it entirely. I think flagging works better for both sides and I wish they'd consider it instead.

    • I agree.

      Twitter was testing such a feature [slashdot.org] too. They could have extended it to cover inaccurate covid-19 tweets.

      • I agree.

        Twitter was testing such a feature too. They could have extended it to cover inaccurate covid-19 tweets.

        "What do they mean, 'Drinking bleach cures coronovirus in one hour' is misinformation? It's just Big Pharma trying to keep me dependent on their autism vaccines, I'll show them!"

    • We have numerous examples that once people begin to panic, free speech *often* increase the problem.
      Epidemics, mobs, civil unrest, disasters, in large crowds, etc.

      I strongly support free speech and don't have a good answer.

      But we have had *millions* of malicious or greedy or politically motivated people spreading false information about Covid19 that lead to it being such a problem.

      Free speech helps when the government is the problem. But it just creates noise, chaos, cults of personality, etc. in other sit

  • See, don't need no Twitter for this!

  • After all, we know that simply placing a cotton ball soaked in violet oil in your anus at night [al-monitor.com] will protect you... Or does Twitter want to slander the Iranian regime and say they don't know how to deal with the Chinese virus?

  • It's for your own good (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eaglesrule ( 4607947 ) <eaglesrule@@@pm...me> on Thursday March 19, 2020 @04:48PM (#59850742)

    In order to help prevent the spread of covid-19, China is no longer considered to be the origin of the virus. It shall be referred to only as being 'asian' in origin.

    Please follow our guidelines in using only passive voice in referring to the original outbreak, until such time all blame can be assigned on a convenient scapegoat of our choosing, which would not be a member of our growing family of Protected Groups.

    Thank you for helping keep Twitter safe and clean so that everyone can enjoy expressing themselves.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Will they also start blocking all of the Spring Break and bar hangout tweets as well?

  • In order to enforce the rule, Twitter must know where the truth is. Take chloroquine, for instance, is it allowed to tell it may be a cure to COVID-19?

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