Twitter also put a warning label on a similar Trump tweet, saying it violated rules by giving false information on Covid-19.
Washington DC| Facebook and Twitter took action against the tweets made on Tuesday by US President Donald Trump, in which he equated the deadly Coronavirus with common flu. Both the social media giants put the post/tweet in the category of posts with misinformation about the Coronavirus. Though Facebook later deleted this post, it had already been shared 26 thousand times.
A spokesperson for the company told Reuters, “We have removed one misinformation about the severity of the Covid-19.” As the world’s largest social media company, which exempts politicians from third party fact-checking, it is rare for action to be taken against the US President.
Twitter also put a warning label on a similar Trump tweet, saying it violated rules by giving false information on Covid-19. In 2019-2020, 22 thousand people died in the US due to the flu, while Coronavirus has killed 2 lakh 10 thousand people in the US so far.
Trump, who returned to the White House after spending three nights in a military hospital after turning out to be Coronavirus positive, asked the Americans to get out more. Reacting to the action taken by Social Media companies, Trump Campaign spokeswoman Courtney Perella said, “Silicon Valley and the mainstream media have always used their forums to sell fear and censor President Donald Trump to fulfill their agenda.”
Twitter labels posts with misinformation and has done so before with President Donald Trump’s tweets. The company said that it is trying to do this more frequently. Facebook first removed a post by the US President in August about the Coronavirus. The post shared a video stating that the children are almost immune to Covid-19.
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