Twitter to Scrub Posts Claiming Vaccines ‘Cause Harm’ Or Are ‘Used to Control Populations’

By Staff, Agencies

Twitter has signaled it will begin removing posts containing vaccine “conspiracies,” including claims vaccines are purposely used to cause harm and “control populations.”

Starting next week, the social media giant will excise all posts that “invoke a deliberate conspiracy” or “advance harmful, false, or misleading narratives” about vaccines, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday, focusing particularly on inoculations against the coronavirus.

“Using a combination of technology and human review, we will begin enforcing this updated policy on December 21, and expanding our actions during the following weeks,” it said, adding that the new rule would be enforced “in close consultation with local, national, and global public health authorities around the world.”

Staff will be asked to remove posts that include any suggestion that vaccines “are used to intentionally cause harm, control populations, or are unnecessary, as well as false claims which have been widely debunked about the adverse impacts or effects of receiving vaccinations.”

Beyond its pledge to coordinate with health officials, however, Twitter did not specify how it would determine which claims would qualify as having been “debunked.”

The company also said that, from early next year, it would attach “warning” labels to tweets that “advance unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines.”