Twitter and Facebook have taken action against US President Donald Trump’s posts comparing Covid-19 to the common cold. On Tuesday, Trump’s Facebook and Twitter posts compared COVID to the common cold. The response on social media was to indicate that misleading information had been shared.
Trump tweeted that thousands of people die from the common cold each year. Trump tweeted that he needed to be shut down across the country for minor illness and to live with COVID just as he had learned to live with the flu.
Trump’s post was removed from Facebook on Tuesday for providing misleading information about COVID. A company spokesman said Trump’s post was intended to downplay Covid’s seriousness and was therefore being removed. Trump’s tweet also claimed that Twitter had violated the rules. Twitter tweeted that Trump was keeping the tweet only for the public to see.
Following this, Trump’s Facebook post was removed from Facebook. We will remove inaccurate information regarding the impact of COVID. Auntie Stone, Facebook’s policy communications manager, told the media that this was why the post was removed.
Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020
