by Autumn Johnson
Meta, parent company to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads, has once again implemented a filter that censors certain terms related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Threads, Meta’s text based program designed to rival Twitter, is blocking specific words related to COVID-19 and vaccines on its recently updated search engine.
The Washington Post reported Monday that Threads users who searched “covid” or “long covid” were redirected to a blank screen and a pop-up link to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Threads also blocked words such as “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination” from its search engine, according to The Post.
Meta’s defense of its new policy is makes it clear that the company has learned nothing from its failed censorship policies in the past.
“The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content,” Meta told The Post, adding that the company will not add the terms back to the search engine until they “are confident in the quality of the results.” In other words, Meta will once again hold itself out to be the arbiter of truth.
Even a health group said the new policy is a bad idea.
