Facebook Takes A Post By Trump Citing Its Rule That Bans Harmful Misinformation About COVID-19
Facebook removed a post by Donald Trump, enforcing its rules that restrict harmful speech on the president's post for the first time. The social media giant took the post down as it contained a false shred of information about children's vulnerability to COVID-19.
Trump admitted that he often regrets his Twitter rant during an interview with Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy last month. Aside from Twitter, he has a reputation for posting equally controversial messages on Facebook. While Twitter recently started adding a warning label fact-checking the president's false claims, this is the first time Facebook has taken down his post on its platform.
The aforesaid post is a Fox video clip that shows the president making an incorrect statement, claiming that children and nearly immune to COVID-19. There aren't pieces of evidence to support his claim about children being immune to the deadly virus, which justifies Facebook's move to remove the clip Trump posted on his personal Facebook account.
Facebook said it took down Trump's post because it tampered with its policy that bans harmful misinformation about the still-raging coronavirus pandemic. The move comes in the wake of an ongoing debate about whether the company should adopt stricter policies against false statements made by politicians including Trump made on its platform.
Until now, Facebook has largely refrained from moderating political speech because it wants to be an open platform for communication rather than an "arbiter of truth." But the company has adopted a strict policy when it comes to spreading COVID-19 misinformation since the pandemic started, and Trump's post surpassed that line.
A Facebook spokesperson told Recode that the video posted by Trump was removed as it contained false claims indicating a group of people is immune from coronavirus. The spokesperson went on to say that the clip violated Facebook's policies about spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Despite some researchers claiming that the effect of COVID-19 on children isn't as severe as on adults, it is worth noting that they can still contract the virus. It can be recalled that numerous children at a Georgia summer camp became infected with the virus recently, and some even died from it.
Scientists are still trying to figure out how the virus affects patients in long terms, even if they show only milder signs. Trump's statement on Fox falsely suggested that children are almost immune from COVID-19, adding that they have stronger immune systems to resist the disease than adults and they do not have a problem.