Elon Musk’s big change to content moderation on Twitter

Elon Musk has made another big move over at Twitter to reduce content moderation, removing a policy all the other social media giants have.

There has been another big change to social media platform Twitter after Elon Musk’s $US44 billion ($A66 billion) takeover.

It emerged on Wednesday, a notice had been published on the company’s website announcing Twitter’s Covid misleading information policy would not be enforced from November 23.

The policy involved Twitter removing or annotating “potentially harmful and misleading information” about Covid.

As of September, Twitter said it had suspended 11,230 accounts and removed 97,674 pieces of content under the policy.

Examples of tweets provided that went against the policy included “social distancing is not effective”, “Covid-19 does not infect children”, “5G causes coronavirus” and “avoid businesses owned by Chinese people as they are more likely to have Covid-19”.

Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, and TikTok, owned by ByteDance, all have policies relating to Covid-19 misinformation.

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Twitter has stopped enforcing its Covid misinformation policy. Pictures: Twitter

Musk, who is the world’s richest person and a self-described “free speech absolutist”, is determined to reduce content moderation on the platform.

Last week, he announced a “general amnesty” for all suspended accounts, which means some of the most controversial right-wing figures will return to Twitter.

The most famous person to have their ban reversed was Donald Trump, but the former US president said he had no interest in returning to Twitter anyway.

Elon Musk has been determined to reduce content moderation. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Musk claimed Apple has threatened to oust his recently acquired social media platform. Picture: Samuel Corum/AFP

This week Musk claimed Apple had halted most of its advertising on Twitter and threatened to withhold the social media app from its App Store without explanation.

Apple’s media agency Omnicom Media Group recommended earlier this month its clients, which also include McDonald’s and PepsiCo, pause spending on Twitter due to “brand safety concerns”, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

A slew of big advertisers have already turned their backs on Twitter, including General Motors, Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills. Many other companies have deactivated their accounts.

Last week, Musk responded to a user asking what he would do if Apple and Google dumped Twitter from their app stores.

He said while he hoped it would not come to it, he would “make an alternative phone”.