The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) has decided to discontinue its use of Twitter for the time being, the health authority announced on Monday.
The agency said it is taking a break from the social media platform due to inappropriate comments and the spreading of false information, according to THL communications chief, Marjo Loisa.
"At the moment, we don't feel it would be much use as a channel for official communication," Loisa told news agency STT.
Loisa explained that THL's Twitter account has been used as an avenue for spreading disinformation, for example in comment threads replying to the agency's tweets.
Disinformation refers to the intentional spreading of misleading or false information, and Loisa noted that the spread of such false information and inappropriate messages has become worse over time.
"It actually takes most of our time to process materials from social media platforms. However, other social media channels still have very constructive and fruitful discussions, so we would rather invest in them," Loisa said.
Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat was the first to report about THL's Twitter break.
The health agency's account and past posts remain on Twitter, but its latest tweet posted on the platform was dated 23 December, 2022. As of Monday the organisation's Twitter account had around 94,200 followers.
While use of the health authority's Twitter account is being paused, THL will continue to communicate on the social media platform through accounts linked to projects and employees' personal accounts.
As an organisation, THL will focus on other platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, according to communications chief Loisa.
"During the pandemic, we gained many more followers on all of our social media platforms. The positive developments in the number of followers has continued," Loisa explained, adding that the biggest audience growth was seen on Instagram and LinkedIn.
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