Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 20, 2025

Anti-Covid vaccine tweets face five-strikes ban policy

Anti-Covid vaccine tweets face five-strikes ban policy

Twitter is to ban users who repeatedly tweet harmful misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.

Under the scheme, members will face a lock being placed on their account. Its duration will be determined by how many times they have posted misleading information about the jabs.

If they accrue "five strikes", they face a permanent ban.

Anti-disinformation campaigners say the success of the initiative now depends on how strictly Twitter enforces it.

The move brings the social network in line with several of its rivals.

Facebook and Instagram announced their own pledge to close the accounts of repeat offenders a month ago.

And YouTube already operates its own three-strikes system, which was extended in October to cover claims about vaccines that contradict "expert consensus".

Label v deletions


Twitter also said it would begin applying labels to tweets that it believes "may contain misleading information" about Covid-19 vaccines, that it has not deemed to be serious enough to warrant removal.

Its rules and policies guide is not definitive about how it will determine what action to take.

But it indicates it will delete posts that invoke a "deliberate conspiracy" by malicious forces and/or that claim vaccines are an "intentional attempt to cause harm".

And it will label those that only contain misleading information about the safety of the treatments, or that make other debunked claims about adverse impacts.

Posts that question the effectiveness of the jabs but do not misrepresent research findings will be neither removed nor labelled, the guide adds.

The five-strikes system is a bit more complicated than it sounds as different offences merit different penalties:

*  tweets that are labelled and determined to be harmful accrue one strike

*  tweets that are deleted accrue two strikes

Based on this, users face being locked out of their account once they get two strikes or more with:

*  two and three strikes both leading to a 12-hour suspension

*  four strikes leading to a week-long lockout

*  five strikes or more leading to a permanent ban

In a blog, Twitter added that it had removed more than 8,400 tweets to date for breaking its earlier Covid-19 rules.

But one group said the US firm had done "less than the bare minimum" to tackle anti-vaccination posts.

"The anti-vaxx industry comprises a small number of highly active, well-resourced accounts, producing industrial levels of disinformation, most of which are still up and tweeting," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate think tank.

"When misinformation is reported to them using their own reporting tools, we know little is done in practice.

"Last year we reported dozens of posts containing Covid misinformation in partnership with youth charity, Restless Development. Fewer than one in 20 misinformation posts actually had action taken against them."


Since the beginning of the pandemic, conspiracy influencers have grown huge followings on social media by repeatedly sharing falsehoods about vaccines.

I investigated the boom in the following of accounts promoting anti-vaccine content on Twitter for BBC Panorama - exposing the harm it had caused to communities across the UK.

Vulnerable people I interviewed were scared off the vaccines by the latest tactics of a committed minority of activists, who use Twitter and other platforms.

Twitter has repeatedly committed to tackling harmful misinformation - but it will take some time to see whether this updated strike system results in those repeat offenders having their accounts removed.

While many of those influencers sharing vaccine mistruths in the UK have already been suspended from the site, accounts of those in the US - central to this disinformation ecosystem that repeatedly distorts stories about the vaccine - remain live at this time.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
×