Twitter decided an announcement wasn't necessary when it stopped enforcing its COVID-19 misleading information policy several days ago.
As CNN reports, the policy was actually dropped by Twitter on Nov. 23, but no formal announcement was made. Instead, a message was posted at the top of a Twitter blog post last updated on Jan. 12, 2021 stating, "Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy."
The policy was introduced to prohibit the posting on harmful misinformation relating to COVID-19 on Twitter. It resulted in more than 11,000 accounts being suspended and over 100,000 pieces of content being removed for violating the policy's rules. Twitter continued to update the "proactive enforcement metrics" of the policy between April 2020 and Jan. 2021 to ensure misinformation was kept to a minimum.
With the policy no longer being enforced, combined with Twitter's amnesty on suspended accounts this week, the opportunity exists for misinformation to flood Twitter in the coming days and weeks. Dealing with reports of misinformation may also prove difficult for Twitter's moderation team following extensive employee layoffs and hundreds more deciding to quit recently.