UltraViolet Slams Elon Musk, Twitter for Refusal to Track Covid-19 Disinformation, Says Decision Will Likely Lead to Fatal Outcome

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 30, 2022
CONTACT: Anna Zuccaro | anna@unbendablemedia.com

Yesterday, Twitter publically announced that the platform will no longer track or remove posts promoting false information related to pandemic or Covid-19.

In response to the news, Bridget Todd, communications director of UltraViolet, a national gender equity organization and leading advocate in the fight against disinformation online, issued the following statement:

“From the beginning, it was abundantly clear that Elon Musk only wanted to control Twitter to use it as a tool to advance his hyper-partisan and hypocritical agenda. Now that Musk is in charge of the platform, we see the true extent of the horrors he’s unleashing in the name of this ideology.

“From granting amnesty to hate mongers and anti-vaxxers to letting extremism proliferate, Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a toxic cesspool that makes us all less safe — both online and in the real world.

“Yesterday’s announcement that Twitter would no longer track or stop the spread of misinformation shows Musk is crossing a new threshold of public health risk in his clear desperation to keep the company afloat. The pandemic is not over. With rising flu and RSV cases, and a projected spike in COVID this holiday season, we know hospitals are already overwhelmed and that people will die. For companies like Amazon, Disney, and Google that are still advertisers on Twitter – the question is simple: what are you doing?”

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