Starting next week, Twitter will start removing fake news about Covid-19 vaccines, the social network announced today (16/12). Any misinformation will be considered grounds for exclusion: conspiracy theories, widely debunked claims or intentionally false content will not be part of the company led by Jack Dorsey.

Additionally, Twitter will also expand its recent practice of labeling tweets as false or inaccurate – a adopted measure during the US presidential elections of 3/11, in which the current president Donald Trump was defeated - to curb the spread of fake news about Covid-19 vaccines.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1339299356286066689

“We will reinforce this policy through our outreach to local, national and global health authorities around the world, and we will strive to be more transparent in our approach,” reads an excerpt from the announcement made on Twitter.

The news comes shortly after several countries announced vaccination plans and approvals of several vaccines under research: in the US, the federal government approved the offer of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and the German laboratory BioNTech, while CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, is already being applied in Turkey and Peru, in addition to being in the process of approval by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in Brazil.

Twitter's practice isn't exactly new, but it's given a major boost by today's announcement. In March of this year, the platform stated that would remove posts that encouraged the spread of the virus. In May, the social network began directing users to links posted by health authorities regarding Covid-19 precautions. A tab with the name of the disease, offering verified and confirmed information, was also created by Twitter at the same time.

Now, with Twitter promising to remove fake news about vaccines, the company is once again seeking to prevent the spread of false information within its platform.

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