Twitter placed a misinformation label on the same message, but did not remove it.
Facebook took down a post from President Donald Trump on Tuesday that compared the coronavirus to the flu and argued that the United States should learn to live with both illnesses. “Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu,” the president wrote on his Facebook page.
“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!!!”, states that the company will remove misinformation about the coronavirus when it could contribute to imminent physical harm. “We remove incorrect information about the severity of COVID-19, and have now removed this post,” Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in a statement. She noted that Facebook took action because the president equated the coronavirus to the flu. As the US heads toward the presidential election, Facebook’s takedown is the latest attempt to stem the misinformation that spews from the account of the most powerful person in the world. It’sthe company has taken down content from Trump’s account for misleading information about COVID-19 following an incident in August, in which the president shared a video clip where he said that children were “almost immune” to the coronavirus. In Tuesday’s post, the president said more than 100,000 people die from the flu every year, a claim contradicted by. The CDC estimates that 61,000 people died in the US from influenza in the 2017-2018 flu season, the highest annual total of the last decade. It’s unclear what the president was referring to when suggesting “in most population far less lethal!!!” The novel coronavirus has killed more thanand infected more than seven million, including the president, even as most Americans have embraced social distancing and mask wearing. Following Facebook’s takedown, Twitter placed a warning label on the same message on its platform. In its label, Twitter said that Trump’s post violated rules “about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19” but allowed it to stay up because it “may be in the public’s interest.”Facebook’s move comes after critics and the company’s employees flaggedfrom Trump on Monday that said, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” At least two employees flagged the post on Facebook’s internal message boards, according to information shared with BuzzFeed News, noting that it was in possible violation of the company’s rules around coronavirus misinformation and could lead to more harm.The social network’s enforcement, or lack of enforcement, of its own rules on posts by the president have perplexed the public and those inside the company. In May, against a post from Trump that suggested that state violence would be used against protestors who had taken to the streets in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police.
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