Trump’s COVID-19 Post Deleted by Facebook and Hidden by Twitter

Popular social networking site Facebook has deleted President Donald Trump’s misleading post on COVID-19, claiming it “less lethal” than the flu.

Mr Trump returned to the White House after three days of hospital treatment. Last Friday, he was tested positive for the deadly virus.

He wrote the US had “learned to live with” flu season, “just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

On the other hand, Twitter disabled a similar tweet from Trump and labeled a warning about “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information”.

Users can click the alert to access the tweet.

Policy communications manager at Facebook, Andy Stone said, “”We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post.”

Measuring exact mortality rate for coronavirus is quite difficult, but it is assumed to be substantially higher – possibly 10 times or more – than normal flu strains, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Following that President Trump reacted by tweeting: “REPEAL SECTION 230!!!”

It was clearly a reference to a law that says social media sites are not accountable for the content shared by their users.

But it allows the companies to involve in “good-Samaritan blocking”, including the removal of content they consider to be offensive, violent, or harassing.

If the law were to be revoked, social media networks would face being sued over the edits and changes of user content they performed.

Facebook doubles down

This is not the first instance when Facebook has deleted a post from the president. Twitter has engaged more often in removals and warnings.

Both social networks have pledged to combat any potentially risky information around the virus.

But Mr Trump seems to be against what he considers as editorializing by the companies.

Shortly after Twitter added a warning sign on his posts for the first time in May, Mr Trump reacted by signing an executive order to revoke Section 230.

The proposal has received cross-party support, but for different reasons.

The Republicans say there is a partiality against or even direct censorship of conservative views online and want this to stop. The Democrats say they are more concerned about the spread of misinformation.

Last week, the US Senate Commerce Committee issued summons for the heads of Twitter, Facebook, and Google to probe the matter further.

Facebook and Twitter have been under enormous pressure to do more to tame the misinformation on both, the pandemic and the US election. For the same reason, their bold action on Trump’s recent post spreading false claims about the severity of COVID-19 will be welcomed.

That being said, President’s comments about the flu – including those posted yesterday “Don’t be afraid of Covid” – have already begun to increase conspiracy theories online.

Posts in support of Trump and anti-mask Facebook groups included the comments with captions about the pandemic being fake, or not very serious. They have also used it to tell others not to adhere to official health guidelines like wearing a mask or social distancing.

Early on in the pandemic, the BBC examined the human cost of misinformation, including those who become seriously ill because some social media posts led them to question the reality or severity of the pandemic and avoid advice.

This decisive action from social media networks would certainly reduce the risk of that happening to an extent – but those who may have already been exposed to this disinformation could be impacted.

And all the eyes will be on social media giants to see if they continue this approach to tackle misinformation – COVID-19, political or otherwise – especially from US presidential candidates as polling date approaching.