Twitter Acknowledges Flagging COVID-19 Facts as "Misinformation"

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Twitter has flagged dozens of factual tweets about COVID-19 as misinformation and suspended the accounts of scientific and medical professionals tweeting warnings about the disease in the past week, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Twitter reversed its actions after receiving feedback on about 10 tweets and accounts, and acknowledged the mistakes in an interview with the newspaper.

However, several of the users whose accounts were impacted expressed concern that the mislabeling undermined the authority of scientific and medical experts and their ongoing attempts to battle COVID-19 misinformation online, whether related to vaccines, long COVID, or other issues. Those advocating greater caution also appear to be more likely to face online attacks or bad faith user reports for misinformation.

Twitter has struggled to rein in misinformation throughout the pandemic. An Oxford University study in 2020 showed that nearly 60% of COVID-19 misinformation was not flagged and a German Marshall Fund report this year found that vaccine skeptics were able to attract much more attention that news outlets.