Threads is leaving the knot tied in COVID-related searches for the foreseeable future.
The social media company has blocked terms including “COVID,” “vaccines,” and “long COVID” as it focuses its resources on fighting misinformation about the war in Israel and Gaza.
The search filters have been in place since mid-September. In a statement on the platform, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram and Threads, acknowledged them, calling the block “temporary,” but said there was no timeline on when it would reopen searches on those terms. It could be “weeks or months” before that occurs.
“The reality is that we have lots of important work to do. The team is moving fast, but we’re not yet where we want to be,” he wrote.