Aug. 5 (UPI) — Facebook removed a post on President Donald Trump’s profile on Wednesday, saying it contained false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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,” Facebook representative Andy Stone said.
The decision marks the first time that Facebook has removed a Trump post for information related to the novel coronavirus.
In June, Facebook removed Trump campaign adds that featured a red, upside-down triangle, which the Anti-Defamation League said was similar to one used by Nazis for political prisoners, saying that it violated its policy against organized hate.
The same clip that was removed from Facebook on Wednesday was also posted to Twitter and remained visible on the service as of Wednesday evening.
Twitter has flagged several of Trump’s tweets, doing so for the first time in May after the site determined two tweets the president made about mail-in ballots contained “potentially misleading information about voting processes.”
Last month, the Commerce Department petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to develop plans to regulate social media platforms after Trump signed an executive order on the subject in May.