The sequel is rarely as good as the original, but this one is just as dangerous.
Twitter is taking action against the follow-up to the coronavirus conspiracy film, Plandemic, which went viral earlier this year. The original video pushed falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccinations. It was viewed tens of millions of times online.
The newer film, Plandemic: Indoctornation, is hosted on the site FreedomPlatform.tv. According to Twitter, the URL for the video is being marked as “unsafe” throughout the platform. If a user searches for the link on Twitter, they will be met with a “Know the facts” warning label, which promotes a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) coronavirus facts page.
Unlike Facebook, which is blocking links to the video from the social network altogether, Twitter will let users post the domain. According to a company spokesperson, it finds that many of its users debunk the claims in the video and simply include the link for context, which informed the decision to allow the URL to be posted.
As for specific clips of the Plandemic sequel posted to Twitter, the company will determine which of these to pull on a case-by-case basis. The individual clip itself would need to violate the service’s policies on misinformation for action to be taken to remove it.
Twitter updated its rules on misleading information amid the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. With the update, the company added warning labels and additional context to tweets that contain false or misleading information that could cause harm.
Plandemic: Indoctornation is much longer than its predecessor, clocking in at just over 84 minutes. Like the original, however, the film is chock-full of coronavirus disinformation and anti-vaxxer propaganda.