Facebook Pulls Donald Trump Video Falsely Claiming Kids Are ‘Virtually Immune’ to COVID-19

Facebook has removed a post from President Donald Trump. The clip in question contained a clip of him making a baseless claim about coronavirus in an interview he gave on Fox News Wednesday.

“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement, according to CNN. He added the specific comments were in direct violation of the social media platform’s rules. Specifically, Trump’s false claims about children being “virtually immune” to the virus. It was also tweeted by the president’s campaign team, as well as the president, though it has been removed from Twitter, as well.

Trump campaign spokesperson Courtney Parella defended Trump’s false claim, arguing that he was simply “stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus.” She also accused all of Silicon Valley of being biased against Trump, adding that “social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.”

The removal marks the first time Facebook has removed one of Trump’s posts for pandemic-related reasons, though it did take down a campaign ad over the summer that featured Nazi symbolism. Twitter, which has also stated it will combat disinformation regarding both coronavirus and the upcoming election, has put a fact-check disclaimer beneath Trump’s tweets. This action has not been met well by the president or his allies.

Back in July, Twitter removed a post that Trump retweeted over false coronavirus claims, where he shared a video posted by Dr. Stella Immanuel containing blatantly false information about COVID-19. The video itself argued that “COVID has a cure,” and the always reassuring “America, wake up.” It featured Immanuel promoting several wildly politicized conspiracy theories, including Trump’s oft-touted hydroxychloroquine, which he has repeatedly insisted could cure the virus. Despite refutal from numerous health experts, including those in his administration. The video has since been removed from Facebook and YouTube for similar policy violations.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., also had his account temporarily locked by Twitter on July 28. Like his father’s ban, it, too, was also over posting content that had false coronavirus claims. A spokesperson for Twitter stated that Trump Jr. was under what’s known as a “lockout,” which gives an account limited functionality for 12 hours.