Twitter Drops COVID Censorship Policy

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Twitter, along with Facebook, Google, and other big tech companies, instituted heavy censorship at the outset of COVID-19 to deny alternative viewpoints on treatment and care the ability to share their ideas. Nothing could be more antithetical to free speech in America, though the companies’ status as corporations and users’ agreement with terms and conditions made these actions legal. Now though, Twitter, newly acquired by Elon Musk, has lifted its ban on alternative COVID-19 viewpoints. Tom Woods reports in his letter on what he thinks would be a good set of things to remember going forward:

Well, how about this:

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

A policy that was used to silence good people, and ideas that should have been debated, is no more.

And of course the policy was bound to be enforced selectively: no matter how much “misleading information” came from official sources, Twitter wasn’t about to flag it.

Now we just need to get all those courageous doctors reinstated.

Rumors have been circulating that without more censorship on Twitter, Apple could drop it from its app store. Asked for comment, Elon Musk said that if that happened, he would start his own phone company.

You can imagine the hysteria among the censors. Our friend Jenin Younes, the Tom Woods Show guest I mentioned yesterday, just wrote this response to them that I thought you might enjoy:

Covid authoritarians are decrying Twitter (mostly) abandoning censorship policies, on the grounds the platform will be flooded with misinformation, leading to all sorts of bad things. To assuage their concerns, here’s a guide to functioning in these uncertain and difficult times: 

1) RECOGNIZE that “misinformation” is nothing new. Humans have told lies from time immemorial. That’s why not lying is one of the 10 Commandments. “Misinformation” is just a scary word used by politicians and bureaucrats to convince you that we are dealing with a new phenomenon.

2) USE common sense. Just because someone says something on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true. Believe it or not, you can exercise your own judgment instead of relying on the geniuses who work at the CDC and Twitter! Here are a few tips to help you assess claims on the Internet: 

a) ASK whether it comports with observable reality. Do you know people who got the fourth booster and still got covid? If the answer is yes, then when Kamala Harris says you won’t contract covid if you get a booster, that’s probably misinformation. 

b) READ studies themselves instead of accepting the conclusions reported by the authors, who may be interested parties, and CNN or the New York Times. If the “study” is actually anecdotal evidence from two hairdressers wearing masks in St. Louis in March 2020, it’s probably misinformation.
 
c) ASK yourself what ulterior motives the person making the claim might have. For example, if someone is director of NIAD and clearly loves being in the spotlight, consider the possibility he is prolonging covid restrictions out of self-interest, rather than your well-being. 

3) RECOGNIZE that when you cede authority to government and large corporations to determine who’s heard and who’s silenced, when power changes hands, you might not be able to tweet those cute photos of yourself getting a booster with the caption “#savinglives.”

4) I know this is all a lot of work as it can be difficult to read studies and think critically, and emotionally taxing to encounter views with which you disagree. Unfortunately, it can take effort to live in a free society. I hope I’ve convinced you it’s worth it.

I’m happy to say that for the most part the Tom Woods Show managed to evade the censors throughout this ordeal, though I can’t say I was too thrilled when a video of mine that got 1.5 million views in a matter of days was removed on a bogus misinformation charge, or that one of my conversations with Rep. Thomas Massie — a United States congressman — was likewise removed. But I realize it could have been a lot worse.

I’ve talked to Peter McCullough, Pierre Kory, Martin Kulldorff, Scott Atlas, Jay Bhattacharya, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other heroes of the resistance.

The point of releasing thousands of podcast episodes is to give people a place where they can be sure they’re hearing the truth, in a world of lies.