Meta’s Threads Blocking Searches For ‘Covid’ And ‘Vaccines’
Meta’s new Threads social media app is based on the model established by X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. But it is faltering, and now word is out that it blocked keywords with “potentially sensitive” topics such as “COVID-19” and “vaccines.”
The Washington Post reported on Monday that the platform reworked its search engine. Instead of allowing an open discussion, Threads only displays a blank screen before a link pops up for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
Other words related to the pandemic are also scratched off its potential search list.
The platform told Fox News Digital in a statement last week that keyword search is being rolled out for additional countries. At least for now, the search “doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content.”
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said it is a “temporary” measure.
Even public health officials criticized the move. World Health Network Outreach Director Julia Doubleday said social media is important for people who were recently diagnosed to find further information.
Doubleday called it “indefensible” that communications with the sick are cut off by Threads. “Long COVID patients have died of organ failure, infections, cardiac events and more, and social media is one place they can share information.”
Threads raced out of the gate in July with over 100 million sign-ups in its first week alone. Users quickly discovered glaring flaws in the startup, which lacked many of the popular features found in X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that Threads so desperately wanted to replace.
It didn’t help that the development was rushed through in five short months.
Panic ensued in leftist circles when conservative billionaire Elon Musk purchased X late last year. It marked the first time liberal factions did not control every social media platform, and Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg apparently saw the need for a counterpart to X.
That counterpart, of course, would be focused on controlling the social media narrative much in the way that X did under its previous ownership.
Meta declared its commitment to safety measures on the new platform that will stem the spread of “misinformation.”
And just in time for the fall and the leadup to the spring presidential primaries, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the latest round of COVID-19 vaccines. Only, don’t bother searching for independent information on Threads.
