Politics

President Donald Trump censored by Facebook for first time

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PHOTO CREDITS: ERIN SCHAFF/NEW YORK TIMES

After President Donald Trump’s campaign accounts posted a video of the president discussing COVID-19 and its effect on children late last week, Facebook took censorship action against Trump for the first time, blocking the video, as did Twitter and Youtube. ~

The companies blocked a video of an interview between Trump and Fox 4, in which the companies claim Trump stated inaccurate information about the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump re-election campaign account, @TeamTrump on Twitter, was banned from sending new tweets on wednesday after it posted said video, in which Trump said that children were “virtually immune,” to the virus while discussing why kids should go back to school, and that children “don’t have a problem, they just don’t have a problem.” The same video was posted to Trump’s official Facebook account, which was also removed, in addition to being removed from Trump’s YouTube channel for violating their misinformation policies. ~

Thursday morning, Trump appeared on the Cleveland radio show WTAM, and told host Geraldo Rivera that he believes he is being unfairly censored, saying, “any conservative Republican is censored and look at the horrible things they say on the left.” Twitter spokesman Nick Pacilio explained that the removal was not based on politics, instead, “The original Tweet from @TeamTrump is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation, and we’ve required removal.” ~

The removal of the tweet shows the more aggressive approach that Twitter has been taking against Trump’s controversial tweets, after it had been under attack for lack of action in months prior. Facebook has also been facing the same criticisms, as outside auditors discovered that Facebook did not enforce its own voter suppression policies when Trump posted information about mail-in ballots. ~

However, Mark Zukerberg, CEO of Facebook, countered criticism by explaining that it is easier to fight misinformation surrounding COVID-19, due to the availability of information provided by the WHO and the CDC. According to the CDC, only 64 deaths of the United States’ 162K recorded thus far have been from those ages 0-17. ~

ARTICLE: ABI YARBROUGH

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