Conservatives Want To Know Why Twitter Is Targeting Right-Wing Misinfo While Giving China, WHO A Pass
Twitter announced that coronavirus-related misinformation that creates what the company considers “widespread panic” will be banned from the platform.
Conservatives are crying foul, with some suggesting the company’s move is problematic given the platform’s unwillingness to nix examples of the World Health Organization and China distributing virus-related misinformation.
The updated policy also came as Twitter is relying on automation to moderate the platform for misinformation, a move that some analysts worry could lead to the company mistakenly hammering users for posting content that is not misinformation.
Conservatives are asking why Twitter is targeting claims that cause “widespread panic” while turning a blind eye to the false information emanating from China and the World Health Organization.
They are also skeptical of the company’s reliance on automated algorithms.
Twitter updated its policies Wednesday governing misinformation to include nixing unverified claims that cause “widespread panic” or encourage people to burn fifth generation mobile service towers out of concern that they are carrying coronavirus. Conservatives say the update is too vague and could potentially hit many people who are not promoting misinformation.
“Twitter can pursue a political agenda and ban outlets like Zero Hedge and War Room for speculating about COVID’s origin in a lab in Wuhan,” Rachel Bovard, senior adviser at the Internet Accountability Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation before citing a Washington Post report noting that the State Department warned the virus might have come from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Meanwhile, the platform takes “zero action against actual government sponsored, communist propaganda, and suffers zero consequences for any of it,” Bovard added.
She mentioned Zero Hedge, an online outlet that Twitter banned for speculating that the virus leaked from a lab.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/26/twitter-censorship-coronavirus-china-world-health-organization/