London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 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.

Comments

Oh ya 5 year ago
So folks you can only have free speech after the thought police check your post. 1984. For Gods sake grow a pair and get your own life and dump these sites that want to control you.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×