Twitter disabled retweets on a tweet from Trump on Tuesday and added a warning tag
Facebook Inc and Twitter took action on Tuesday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s posts for breaking their rules against coronavirus misinformation by suggesting COVID-19 was like the flu.
Facebook deleted the post, but not before it was shared approximately 26,000 times, data from the company’s CrowdTangle measurement tool showed.
“We are removing incorrect information on the severity of COVID-19,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
The world‘s largest social media company, which exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program, has rarely taken action against the Republican President’s posts.
Twitter disabled retweets on a similar tweet from Trump on Tuesday and added a warning tag saying he broke his rules on “disseminating misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19”, but that he may be in the public interest to remain accessible. .
During the 2019-2020 flu season, the flu has been linked to 22,000 deaths in the United States, according to estimates from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since the first case of the novel coronavirus was recorded in the United States earlier this year, more than 210,000 people in the country have died from the disease caused by the virus, the highest death toll in the world.
On Monday, Trump told Americans to “go out there” and not fear COVID-19 as he returned to the White House after a three-night stay in a military hospital outside of Washington where he was treated for COVID-19.
“Silicon Valley and mainstream media have consistently used their platforms to sow fear and censor President Trump to serve their own agenda, even now at this critical time in the fight against the coronavirus,” the spokesperson said. from the Trump campaign, Courtney Parella.
Twitter, which uses tags to flag tweets containing disinformation – including from the president – told Reuters it is currently trying to respond faster and more openly.
Facebook deleted a post from Trump for coronavirus disinformation for the first time in August. The post included a video in which the president falsely claimed that children were “almost immune” to COVID-19.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
