A lot has been going off and on with Twitter recently. From heart-breaking news to new policies, not to mention the viral and very successful crypto-currency scam. Things couldn’t get worse, they said, not until Donald Trump Jr got his account temporarily suspended on Tuesday morning.
The action from Twitter was as a result of a tweet from Donald Trump Jr containing a video clip discussing the benefits of hydroxychloroquine as a would-be Covid-19 cure or vaccine. The video termed the anti-malaria drug as a preventive measure against the coronavirus.
This is not the first time rumors or tweets about the same drug being able to prevent or cure coronavirus has come up. President Donald Trump and some other respected individuals had previously made such claims.
Why Twitter took Such Actions?
The talks of hydroxychloroquine having effects on the coronavirus have been around for some time now and various people have had different thoughts about it. Medical studies and investigations carried out proved that those statements were completely wrong.
Wrong Information has always been coerced by people since the beginning of the pandemic and one way it has been propagated successfully is through social media sites. This has compelled social media platforms to take action against all kinds of false information about the coronavirus.
Twitter claimed that they were taking actions based on the policies guiding the platform. Further stating that “The Tweet referenced was in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy”.
Twitter has taken some really harsh actions as of late since the cryptocurrency scam. But this particular action might be “beyond the pale” according to Donald Trump Jr Spokesman, Andy Surabian.
What Donald Trump JR Tweet Contained?
Technically, though the tweet, He shared a link with a statement that read “This is a much (sic) watch!!! So different from the narrative that everyone is running with”.
Then there was the viral video from yesterday about Doctors making some very serious claims and allegations. The claims mainly asserted that hydroxychloroquine is a strong line of defense against coronavirus.
The video had a Dr. Stella Immanuel along with some other doctors making claims that the anti-malaria drug is very useful in the fight against coronavirus. A lot of high profile names such as Dr. Anthony Fauci were mentioned and accused of already knowing this.
President Trump Related Tweets
To an extent, President Trump has been a frontline in pushing different versions of wrong information about the coronavirus.
President Trump shared the video over and over again on Monday night on Tweets that somehow can’t be found. Andy Surabian in a statement to BBC further labeled Twitter’s action as “intent on killing free expression online and is another instance of them committing election interference to stifle Republican voices”.
President Trump has asked the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to file a petition to look at how social media companies moderate contents. Basically, it asks the Federal Communications Commissions to review rules that protect social media platform from liability for contents posted by its users at the same time let them remove contents they find to be unpleasant.
