By Aaron Miller-
Facebook and Twitter have removed a Trump post over ‘false’ virus claims’
Facebook removed a post from the page of President Donald Trump over what it called “harmful Covid misinformation.”
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The post was a video clip from a Fox News interview in which Trump claimed that children are “almost immune” from the deadly virus. The post included video of Trump falsely asserting that children were “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News.
Twitter last month temporarily suspended Mr Trump’s son, Donald Jr, for sharing a clip it said promoted “misinformation” about coronavirus and hydroxychloroquine. However, in March, Twitter said a tweet by entrepreneur Elon Musk suggesting children are “essentially immune” to coronavirus did not break its rules.
Its statement in relation to Musk’s actions contradicts that being expressed against Trump today. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease.
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“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
During a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Trump repeated the claims about children and the disease.
Courtney Parella, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in response to Facebook’s takedown that the President was “stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus”. She accused Silicon Valley of being biased against the President and said “social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.”
It is the first time that Facebook has taken action against Trump’s account for coronavirus misinformation, earlier this year the company did remove a series of ads and an organic post by the Trump campaign that featured a symbol historically associated with Nazis.
“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.
Scientists are unified in the view that children are less likely to contract covid-19, but health experts do not believe children are immune from the disease. A few children have died of Covid-19.
In June, Facebook removed adverts by Mr Trump’s re-election campaign which breached its policies on hate, after activists compared it to practices used by the Nazi
The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again.”
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