Social media platforms Twitter and Facebook have removed a video clip of US President Donald Trump claiming in an interview that children were "almost immune" to COVID-19. The two social networking services said that President Trump's statement during the interview with Fox News was in violation of their rules there were related to misinformation surrounding the disease.
A spokesperson for Facebook said in a statement, "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."
Twitter Suspends Campaign Account Temporarily
While Facebook removed the clip posted by the President, Twitter briefly suspended a Trump campaign Twitter account, @TeamTrump, for tweeting the video clip which contained the same claim, reported the BBC. The Trump campaign Twitter account became active again after the tweet with the clip was apparently removed.
This is the first time Facebook removed a post by Trump for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy. A Twitter spokesperson said that the tweet by @TeamTrump was in "violation of the Twitter Rules on Covid-19 misinformation".
Not Twitter's First Action Against a Trump Post
However, the microblogging platform, which is facing allegations of being biased against conservative politicians, earlier determined that a post by billionaire Elon Musk which suggested that children were "essentially immune" to coronavirus did not violate its rules. Studies have shown that while children can get the disease, their risk of suffering serious complications due to the disease is lower compared to adults.
This was not the first time Twitter took action on a Trump post. In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots in California. Facebook also removed a Trump campaign ad featuring a symbol used by Nazis for political dissenters, saying the ad violated its policies.
(With inputs from agencies)
