Twitter to label, remove coronavirus vaccine misinformation

Twitter said Wednesday it will begin labeling and removing posts with false claims about coronavirus vaccines during the coming weeks as efforts to vaccinate front-line workers across the country are underway. 

The social media platform said it will expand its existing policies regarding coronavirus misinformation to include posts that “advance harmful, false or misleading narratives” about the COVID-19 vaccinations. Those posts will be labeled and the platform said it may require users to remove such tweets.

Posts subject to the new policy include ones that falsely claim vaccines are used to “intentionally cause harm” or tweets that spread widely debunked claims about the adverse effects of receiving vaccinations, Twitter said in a blog post.

Twitter said it will start enforcing the updated policy Monday, and expand its actions in the following weeks. 

The platform already requires the removal of tweets that include false or misleading information about the nature of the coronavirus and how it spreads, as well as about the efficacy of preventative precautions. 

“We will enforce this policy in close consultation with local, national and global public health authorities around the world, and will strive to be iterative and transparent in our approach,” Twitter said in the post. 

Earlier this month Facebook said it will begin removing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. 

The first doses of a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech are being administered to health care workers across the country this week. The vaccine was cleared by the Food and drug Administration on Friday.

A second vaccine from Moderna could gain emergency authorization as soon as this week.