Twitter temporarily prevented President Donald Trump’s son from tweeting in his after sharing a video plagued by unfounded accusations about the coronavirus on Monday.
Many Republicans reacted with outrage, filling social media with cries of “censorship,” after they suspended Donald Trump Jr.’s account for sharing the video, which was viewed millions of times online within hours, the president was winning. itself, before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube banned it.
These social media platforms have zero-tolerance policies on posts that sell destructive falsehoods about coronavirus.
On Monday, conservative media, experts and celebrities promoted the video on Facebook and Twitter. It has pro-Trump doctors who tell Americans that they don’t want to wear masks to save it from the coronavirus and at the same time introduce hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that the president has touted in the past, as an infallible way to treat coronavirus.
The video directly refutes the recommendation of Trump’s own medical experts, who have suggested others slow the spread of the virus through a mask and have warned that they oppose the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew an order allowing the use of hydroxychloroquine as an emergency remedy for COVID-19.
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Trump’s son used Twitter Monday night to share the misleading video with his five million followers, and called it “a must-see !!!.”
Because he was disseminating incorrect information about the treatment of coronavirus, Twitter asked Trump Jr. to delete the video and put his account in within 12 hours, a Twitter spokesman showed Tuesday. Trump Jr’s profile is still visible, however, he can’t tweet, retwe or like other messages at the time.
Big Tech is the biggest risk of losing speech in the United States and they continue to have interaction in open election interference, period. pic.twitter.com/7dJbauq43O
– Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) July 28, 2020
Meanwhile, the president retwed a post of the video, which has since been deleted. His story remains alive.
Versions of the video still circulate widely on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, accumulating millions of views. Facebook and Twitter said they had removed several versions and were running to delete others. YouTube also said it had been scrapped from the video on its site.