The Journal of the American Medical Association released a study last month with data showing the apparent rapid waning of COVID-19 vaccines in children. Twitter, which has invested considerable time and energy in policing tweets related to the COVID-19 pandemic, slapped a warning label on links to the JAMA report, telling readers the information could be “unsafe.”
Twitter has become notorious for how it policies information spread on its platform on issues from elections to health. It has been particularly active when it comes to potential misinformation about COVID-19. In May 2020, the social media company introduced a new system for classifying false or misleading content, complete with a chart with different types of actions Twitter’s censors would take based on degrees of misinformation and “propensity for harm.”
The journal is one of the most respected medical journals in the world with a solid reputation for facts, data and research, and the report in question was on a government-funded study. Yet Twitter hit the recent JAMA post with a label saying the link “has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe.” The company has since fixed the issue.
This recent incident brought back to the surface accusations of bias against the platform. Several users have accused Twitter of censoring along party lines and as well as taking an Orwellian approach to “wrongthink,” or opinions and information that run counter to accepted narratives.
However, Twitter says its goal is simply to limit the spread of potentially harmful content. And since it is a private company, the courts have allowed Twitter’s actions to stand.
The ongoing imbroglio over the company’s perceived bias has led to widespread support among Twitter’s critics for Elon Musk’s proposed takeover. Musk has repeatedly said that his bid is about free speech with very limited policing and that he wants to ensure the platform treats users fairly by making the algorithm “open source.”
