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Twitter and Facebook parent company Meta is likely to go unpunished in a case surrounding misinformation about the coronavirus. A consumer group has sued social media companies in the US, alleging they are responsible for spreading false information about the virus. In a preliminary ruling, a judge in the state of California disagreed.
US mass media law gives services like Twitter and Facebook plenty of ways to allow messages from users. But according to lawyers, the tech companies violated their own internal rules. That’s why they believe they should be held accountable for spreading misinformation.
The court did not accept that reasoning. According to the judge, lawyers hold websites responsible for messages posted by others. It is not legal.
Twitter recently announced that it is abandoning its policy against misinformation about the coronavirus. When the pandemic began in 2020, the messaging service began posting warnings about tweets containing questionable information about the virus.
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