Twitter introduces strike system for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

As countries around the world go through phases of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Twitter outlines a new system and expands misinformation labels, in an attempt to curb false information and fake news.

The strike system is the procedure Twitter would be following to enforce actions upon accounts that violate Twitter policies around the COVID-19 vaccine.

Strike System

As a part of enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine misinformation policy, Twitter has come up with a 'Strike System' that will take necessary actions on the Tweets and accounts violating the rules.

The severity of the actions would depend on the severity of the violation and the number of violations. The system would determine if further enforcement actions should be applied.

Repeated violations of this policy are enforced against on the basis of the number of strikes an account has accrued for violations of this policy:

• 1 strike: No account-level action
• 2 strikes: 12-hour account lock
• 3 strikes: 12-hour account lock
• 4 strikes: 7-day account lock
• 5 or more strikes: Permanent suspension

Users who believe their accounts were locked or suspended in error can submit an appeal.

If Twitter determines an account is dedicated to Tweeting or promoting a misleading narrative(s) about COVID-19, this may also act as the grounds for suspension.

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Misinformation Labels

Tweets that contain potentially misleading information would be labeled along with the option of being redirected to information by health officials.

The labels are similar to the ones already floating on the platform. The users would still be able to Retweet or Quote Tweet, along with the option to gain more information about why the Tweet may be considered misleading, before sharing it.

The visibility of the Tweets may be reduced, and the platform may also turn off likes, replies, and Retweets.

Labels would be first applied by the teams at Twitter via human review when they ascertain content that violates platform policies. Such assessments would be used to amplify the proactive capacity of automated tools to detect and label similar content across the platform.

The platform mentions both automated tools and human review would be used to address and remove content violating COVID-19 vaccine misinformation rules. Automated tools will begin addressing the content in the English language first, and use the same process to expand to other languages.

The labels will appear in the display language set by the user and may link to curated content and official public health information or the Twitter Rules.