Twitter says it has quit taking action against lies about the 2020 election

On Jan 29, 2022

Twitter spokesperson Elizabeth Busby told CNN on Friday that “since March 2021,” Twitter has not been enforcing its “civic integrity policy” in relation to lies about the 2020 election. That was the policy under which the company had suspended or even banned users for lying about the 2020 election, affixed fact-check warning labels to tweets containing such lies and limited others’ ability to share those inaccurate tweets.

The civic integrity policy still exists, Busby said in an email, but it is “no longer” being applied to lies about the 2020 election in particular. Busby said that’s because the policy is designed to be used “during the duration” of an election or other civic event, and “the 2020 U.S. election is not only certified, but President Biden has been in office for more than a year.”

And numerous Republican candidates running in 2022 primaries are campaigning on lies about what happened in 2020. A handful of these candidates — including at least three over the last two weeks — have included such lies in their advertising.

In a subsequent email to CNN on Friday, Busby said Twitter’s change in enforcement was reported on last June in a New York Times article. That article, though, said Twitter was still working to curb misinformation about the 2020 election but had “loosened its enforcement since March.” Busby went much further on Friday — saying that enforcement is simply not happening and has not happened since March.

Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, a nonprofit that pushes for reforms at social media companies, expressed surprise and dismay at Twitter’s Friday comments.

“I actually praised Twitter when they rolled out a new civic integrity policy in 2021, which prohibits false claims about election results and includes a clear strike system for repeat offenders. To learn they decided explicitly to stop enforcing it two months later, and told nobody, is infuriating — especially for a platform that constantly plays up its commitment to transparent decision-making,” Lehrich said in a message to CNN. “They’ve managed to undermine faith in our democracy and their own credibility all at once.”

Twitter is still enforcing its general rules, which prohibit things like violent threats and hateful conduct. It is also enforcing its policy against Covid-19 misinformation, under which Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had her personal account banned in early January.

Twitter has banned ads from politicians since 2019. And Busby added: “Our teams remain committed to making authoritative information about civic processes accessible and easy to find, and we’ll have more to share on our planning specific to the U.S. midterms soon.”

YouTube takes down a campaign ad

YouTube is taking a different approach from Twitter to lies about the 2020 election.

YouTube decided this week to remove an online copy of a television ad from Missouri Rep. Billy Long, who is competing in a crowded Republican primary for a US Senate seat. The ad features Long falsely declaring that “the Democrats rigged the election” in 2020.

YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi said the company has “clearly and publicly” explained that it prohibits “false claims…

Twitter says it has quit taking action against lies about the 2020 election

YouTube takes down a campaign ad

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