Twitter to remove 'misleading' posts about vaccines

ANKARA

Twitter has announced that it will begin removing misleading information about the COVID-19 vaccines from next week.

"Starting next week, we will prioritize the removal of the most harmful misleading information, and during the coming weeks, begin to label Tweets that contain potentially misleading information about the vaccines," the social media company said Wednesday in a statement.

Tweets that advance unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines will be labeled and those tweets "may link to authoritative public health information or the Twitter Rules to provide people with additional context and authoritative information about COVID-19."

The company underlined that amid a global pandemic, vaccine misinformation presents a "significant and growing public health challenge."

Critics, however, accuse social media companies of censoring free speech, interfering in politics and reaching beyond their limits.

There are more than 74.2 million virus cases and nearly 1.7 million deaths globally, the Johns Hopkins University data showed.

Meanwhile, the worst-hit country by the pandemic, the US, hit a new one-day record by registering more than 3,600 deaths Wednesday. It has nearly 17 million cases and over 307,500 fatalities.