Facebook escalated its crackdown on coronavirus misinformation by deleting a post from President Trump.
On Wednesday, the social media giant targeted Trump in its latest efforts to eliminate “misinformation” about the coronavirus pandemic, which included a clip the president shared on his page that showed him describing children as “almost immune” to COVID-19. Trump made the statement in defense of his position that schools reopen in the fall.
“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,” a Facebook spokesman told CNN.
Some studies have suggested, but have not proven, that children are less likely to get infected than adults and that when they do get COVID-19, the cases are usually mild, and fatalities are rare. There has also been research showing they carry the coronavirus at high levels. This remains a far cry from the assertion that children are immune.
In response to Facebook’s move, Trump campaign deputy national press secretary Courtney Parella told the Washington Examiner that Facebook’s decision was a display of “flagrant bias” against the president.
“The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus. Another day, another display of Silicon Valley’s flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth,” she said in a statement.
The clip, which is also on Twitter, showed Trump saying, “Children are almost, and I would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2020
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said his company’s policies diverge from those of other social media companies, such as Twitter. In May, Zuckerberg said he doesn’t feel Facebook should be in the business of fact-checking posts from users.
“We have a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this,” he told Fox News host Dana Perino. “I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. I think in general, private companies probably shouldn’t be — especially these platform companies — shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”
