Facebook and Twitter Take Action on Trump's Misleading COVID-19 Posts - Details

After three days of hospital treatment for the deadly coronavirus, Facebook and Twitter took action on US President Donald Trump's post for violating their rules against coronavirus.

The post was based on misinformation suggesting that COVID-19 was just like the flu. According to a Reuters report, Facebook took the post down but not before it was shared about 26,000 times. "We remove incorrect information about the severity of COVID-19," a company spokesman told Reuters. 

Meanwhile, Twitter disabled retweets on a similar tweet from Trump. They also added a warning label to the post stating that it broke its rules on "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19" but that it might be in the public interest for it to remain accessible, Reuters further reported.

Since the first case of the coronavirus was recorded in the United States, more than 2,10,000 people have died of the disease. Currently, the US has the world's highest death toll.

Earlier in the week after being discharged from hospital, Trump told the citizens of America "to get out there" and not fear COVID-19 as he returned to the White House after he was treated for COVID-19. 

"Silicon Valley and the mainstream media have consistently used their platforms to fearmonger and censor President Trump to serve their own agenda, even now during this critical moment in the fight against coronavirus," Trump campaign spokeswoman Courtney Parella said.

This was not the first time, where Facebook removed a post from Trump, earlier in August a post was removed too. The post included a video in which the president falsely claimed that children were "almost immune" to COVID-19.