Twitter limits Donald Trump Jr’s account over coronavirus misinformation

Twitter on Tuesday, July 28, temporarily limited the account of Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of US President Donald Trump, after he shared a video containing coronavirus-related misinformation.

Republican strategist Andrew Surabian first shared the news on Twitter, accusing “Big Tech” of “continuing to engage in open election interference.”

https://twitter.com/Surabees/status/1288101467581227011

Surabian’s tweet showed a screenshot of the Twitter decision temporarily limiting Donald Trump Jr’s account features. While he can browse Twitter and send direct messages to his followers, he cannot tweet, retweet, follow, or like anything for 12 hours.

The video, which shows a group of doctors claiming masks and lockdowns were not required to halt the disease, had been watched by 14 million people on Facebook before it was removed, according to The Washington Post.

The doctors also backed the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that has not been proven effective against COVID-19.

Twitter said Tuesday it had withdrawn the video after Facebook took a similar action.

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy,” a Twitter spokesperson said, declining to give details on how many people had watched the video.

According to a CNN report, the President himself retweeted multiple versions of the video, but Twitter did not take action against his account because he did not upload a version of the video to the site.

Twitter has begun acting against tweets by the President that it says break their rules.

In June, the social media platform hid a tweet in which he threatened to use “serious force” against protestors in Washington, saying it broke rules over abusive content.

The latest moves escalated the battle between the White House and social media firms, which Trump has accused of being biased against conservatives, despite his own large following. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com