Twitter has revealed people in the UK have sent more than 112 million tweets about Covid-19 since the beginning of 2020.
The company defended its role in “healthy conversation” as new figures published by the social media site showed that since January last year, hashtags encouraging people to stay at home to save lives and to wear a mask had dominated online discussions.
The social media company argued this showed it was succeeding in promoting healthy conversation. It added it had updated its rules at the start of the pandemic to combat harmful content.
Earlier this year, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the platforms had a “social responsibility” to do more to stop the spread of misinformation and should have better fact-checking procedures in place.
Twitter said it had removed 37,900 tweets and "challenged" 11.5 million accounts globally linked to the pandemic.
Katy Minshall, Twitter’s head of public policy and philanthropy in the UK, said: “Twitter continues to work with local public health authorities, including the NHS, to amplify credible, verified public health information for those on Twitter.
“As we see vaccine programmes roll out around the globe, our work and partnerships in this space remain of the utmost importance in protecting the health of the public conversation.”
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