Facebook, Twitter remove Trump clip over Covid misinformation

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IANS | 06 Aug, 2020
Facebook and Twitter have removed a video clip from an interview in which US President Donald Trump claimed children were "almost immune" to coronavirus.

The social media platforms said the statement by the US President made during the interview to Fox News violated their rules related to Covid-19 misinformation.

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.

The Trump campaign Twitter account became active again after the tweet with the clip was apparently removed.

"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 was quoted as saying by the BBC.

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".

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 labelled 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.