[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] It has been belatedly confirmed that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, quietly withdrew the policy regulating COVID-19-related fake news. Amid emerging evidence that Chinese authorities are attempting to manipulate public opinion on Twitter regarding protests against COVID-19 lockdowns, concerns are growing that false and hateful news will flood the platform.
On the 29th (local time), Twitter added a statement on its COVID-19 media policy homepage indicating that, as of the 23rd, it has suspended regulatory policies related to COVID-19 misinformation. Twitter did not officially announce this change.
During the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Twitter introduced regulatory measures to block the spread of fake news about the virus and vaccinations by posting special labels and warning messages on tweets containing false or hateful information.
At that time, Twitter also announced that accounts repeatedly spreading false or hateful information could be permanently suspended. Since the policy’s implementation, 11,200 Twitter accounts had been suspended (as of September), and 98,000 pieces of content were removed.
Foreign media such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and CNN pointed out that despite the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China and some other regions, Twitter’s withdrawal of misinformation regulations has created a risk of a surge in false claims.
There is also speculation that some suspended accounts may be restored following the policy withdrawal. Shortly after acquiring Twitter, Musk reinstated the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was suspended for inciting the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in January last year.
Major foreign media outlets including CNN Business reported the day before that evidence has been found that Chinese authorities manipulated Twitter search results related to protests against COVID-19 lockdowns in China to display spam and pornographic content.
According to reports, since last week, searching for major protest locations such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou in Chinese on Twitter yields pornographic videos or spam tweets in the search results. Many of the accounts posting such tweets are suspected to be so-called ‘bot accounts’ that neither follow other accounts nor have followers.
These tweets surged after a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang, on the 24th, which killed 10 people and injured 9. Suspicions arose that the delayed firefighting response was related to China’s strict COVID-19 lockdown measures, sparking protests against lockdowns in major cities across China. However, due to suspicious tweets, photos and videos related to the protests are not properly searchable.
Concerns about public opinion manipulation on Twitter, where self-regulation against fake news has ceased, are spreading. The U.S. Congress has raised concerns that Twitter could be exploited by foreign powers. China and Russia have attempted and continue to attempt to manipulate public opinion through social media platforms like Twitter. In particular, doubts have been raised about Musk’s willingness to respond, given that Tesla, the electric vehicle company he operates, conducts business with China as a key market.
Previously, Musk opposed lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., calling them “de facto house arrest,” and refused to halt Tesla factory operations when California health authorities ordered a shutdown to prevent virus spread. In a September 2020 New York Times (NYT) podcast interview, he claimed that he and his children were not at risk of contracting COVID-19 and stated he would not get vaccinated.
Since acquiring Twitter at the end of last month, Musk has carried out mass layoffs affecting about half of all employees (around 3,700 people) and reversed suspensions on many accounts, leading to a policy shift that has raised fears of a flood of hateful and fake news. As a result, many users and advertisers have left, deepening internal and external crises.
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