Per CNN

Twitter was quick to act regarding alleged Covid misinformation back in 2020. Under Elon Musk's new rule, the social platform overrules its Covid misinformation policy. It is estimated that almost 100,000 content pieces have been removed.

On March 20, 2020, Twitter deleted tweets from Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian President himself, when Bolsonaro questioned the necessity for quarantines, per Axios. This was one of the social platform's first actions to block supposed misinformation on the platform from high-profile individuals.

On October 7, 2020, Twitter also took action against then-US President Donald Trump when he likened the virus to the flu, per Reuters. This is not the only instance where Twitter went on a spree deleting Covid misinformation-related tweets.

11,000 accounts were suspended from January 2020 to September 2022. Under Elon Musk's rule, the platform would no longer enforce its policies on Covid misinformation.

Instead of a public announcement, Twitter simply changed its policy on the website with a note saying the following:

“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy,”

Despite Musk's initial skepticism of the virus, the Twitter CEO has gotten Covid twice and has openly expressed his support for vaccination. Despite his support of shots, he remains that shots should not be mandated.

Musk and Covid have had a sticky situation. Aside from catching the virus himself, Tesla factories were also losing billions due to supply disruptions in China in a report in June of this year per BBC. The Covid lockdowns in China affected Tesla's Germany and US factories.

Elon Musk: "Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. It's really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire,"

On top of this, Musk also went off script to share his sentiments against Covid policies in an article by WSJ on April 2020. This was due to the Covid-caused shutdown of its US assembly plant after Tesla reported surprise Q1 profits.

Resources:

CNN

Axios

Reuters

BBC

The Wall Street Journal

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