Twitter’s COVID Misinformation Policy Includes Politicians, Its Hateful Conduct Policy Should Too, Say Civil Rights Advocates
For Immediate Release: May 18, 2020
Contact: Melissa McCleery, melissa@balestramedia.com, 484–201–3778
Twitter’s COVID Misinformation Policy Includes Politicians, Its Hateful Conduct Policy Should Too, Say Civil Rights Advocates
“Politicians are not above the rules”
Change the Terms, a coalition of over 55 civil rights groups committed to fighting online hate, responded today to Twitter’s expansion of their policy against COVID-19 misinformation and announcement that the platform will put labels and warning messages on some tweets that contain disputed or misleading information related to COVID, including tweets by world leaders. The new, expanded policy goes into effect today.
Carmen Scurato, member of Change the Terms and Senior Policy Counsel of Free Press said:
“Politicians are not above the rules and should not get a free pass to violate the rules on Twitter, whether it’s sharing a fake COVID-19 cure or stoking violence against people of color. Twitter has recognized the dire public health consequences of allowing COVID-19 misinformation on their platform, and they are right to create stronger policies to protect users from fake cures and conspiracy theories posted by any user, including world leaders. But Twitter’s refusal to enforce its policies against hateful conduct when posted by politicians still puts communities of color in harm’s way.
“We know that the peddlers of COVID-19 misinformation are often also peddlers of hate: Racist, hateful posts from world leaders, including President Trump, make Twitter a toxic place for communities of color and stoke real-world violence that endangers lives. Twitter must enforce its policies against hate for all users, especially when that hate is spewed by the most powerful people in the world.
“What this expanded policy shows is that Twitter has the ability and capacity to take meaningful steps to curb dangerous content on their platform. Twitter must use that power to immediately ban white supremacists and end the platform’s lackluster enforcement that continues to allow politicians to post hateful content with impunity.”
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Change the Terms is a coalition calling on Big Tech to institute and enforce service agreement prohibitions on hateful activities to protect public safety and respect diverse voices. The coalition includes more than 50 civil rights, human rights, technology policy and consumer protection organizations dedicated to encouraging social media sites, payment processors and chat services to commit to fair, effective and transparent rules and practices for content moderation.
