Twitter Claims That It No Longer Censors Election ‘Lies’

January 29th, 2022 9:46 AM

Twitter claims it stopped taking action against “lies” about the 2020 election.

The platform said it ceased to monitor these tweets in March of 2021. According to CNN, the company originally used its “civic integrity policy,” but said it no longer does this.

The policy said it would “label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election or other civic process," that included "unverified information about election rigging." 

Elizabeth Busby, a spokesperson for Twitter, told CNN that the policy was only to be used “during the duration” of the election. In the past, Twitter used this policy to “fact-check” tweets, suspend users, and ban users for posting “lies.” 

Some expressed unhappiness about Twitter’s decision.

"I actually praised Twitter when they rolled out a new civic integrity policy in 2021, which prohibits false claims about election results and includes a clear strike system for repeat offenders. To learn they decided explicitly to stop enforcing it two months later, and told nobody, is infuriating -- especially for a platform that constantly plays up its commitment to transparent decision-making," Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, told CNN. "They've managed to undermine faith in our democracy and their own credibility all at once."

For its part, Busby indicated that the policy would return for the 2022 midterms and added that Twitter’s “teams remain committed to making authoritative information about civic processes accessible and easy to find, and we'll have more to share on our planning specific to the U.S. midterms soon."

Former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter in early 2021 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" during the Jan. 6 riot.

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