Twitter introduces “strike system” to permanently ban users who spread COVID-19 misinformation

In order to check the spread of fake information about Covid-19 vaccines, Twitter says it will permanently ban anyuser running afoul of its new “strike system” rules.

The micro-blogging platform says it will start labelling misleading tweets about COVID vaccines and ban users who continue to spread such misinformation after the fifth offending tweet.

According to the social media giant, the second and third strikes will each result in the violating account being blocked for 12 hours, AL Jazeera reports.

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Twitter in a statement on Monday said “We believe the strike system will help to educate the public on our policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on Twitter,” the San Francisco-based company said in a blog post.

“Particularly for repeated moderate and high-severity violations of our rules.”

“Here are the ways in which the strike system will work

Strike 1 – Twitter users will be notified when a tweet is labelled as misleading or needs to be removed

Strike 2 and 3: Account will be blocked for 12 hours

Strike 4: Account will be sidelined for seven days

Strike 5: Accounts permanently suspended.”

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