Donald Trump Jr. is currently suspended from Twitter for sharing a video of a press conference by doctors working to address a “massive disinformation campaign” about COVID-19. In the video, doctors from America’s Frontline Doctors (AFD) share how hydroxychloroquine was successful in treating COVID-19 patients.
“BREAKING: @Twitter & @jack have suspended @DonaldJTrumpJr for posting a viral video of medical doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine,” wrote republican strategist Andrew Surabian. “Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they’re continuing to engage in open election interference – full stop.”
BREAKING: @Twitter & @jack have suspended @DonaldJTrumpJr for posting a viral video of medical doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine.
Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they’re continuing to engage in open election interference – full stop. pic.twitter.com/7dJbauq43O
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) July 28, 2020
President Trump also shared the video, but was not suspended. Twitter instead removed the post in question from all of the president’s accounts.
New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose called attention to the video on his Twitter account, saying that it was “the #2 most-engaged post on Facebook” on Monday.
The #2 most-engaged post on Facebook today is a Breitbart video of a group of doctors claiming that hydroxychloroquine is “a cure for Covid” and “you don’t need a mask.”
14 million views in 6 hours. (For scale, Plandemic got ~8 million in a few days.)
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) July 28, 2020
A spokesperson for Facebook replied to the thread explaining that the company took the video down “for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.” He also said that those who interacted with “harmful COVID-19-related misinformation” would be redirected to “myths debunked by the WHO.”
A Facebook spokesman says the video was removed “for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.” https://t.co/dTKZMHL7GF
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) July 28, 2020
Also, one other thing to note. We’re showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) July 28, 2020
The video has since been removed from Twitter and YouTube for “violating terms of service” or “community guidelines.” According to Breitbart News Network, “the video had over 80,000 views on YouTube prior to its removal.”
Twitter also “limited” Breitbart’s account after it removed the livestream claiming that they were guilty of “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”
“Under this policy, we require the removal of content that may pose a risk to people’s health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information,” read the Twitter censorship explanation.
Despite the attempted censorship by multiple social media platforms, the video has been reuploaded and reposted by many. The video is also the front page on the AFD website.
“Copies of this video are still floating around on Facebook. One posted by Diamond and Silk 3 hours ago has racked up another 5.7 million views,” wrote the NYT reporter. “I can’t remember any video that spread this quickly.”
Copies of this video are still floating around on Facebook. One posted by Diamond and Silk 3 hours ago has racked up another 5.7 million views. I can’t remember any video that spread this quickly.
— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) July 28, 2020
The hashtag #hydrochloroquineWorks and #hydroxycholorquine were both trending in the United States early Tuesday morning.
