Twitter makes 'Team Trump' remove false coronavirus post, banned from tweeting until post was removed
Twitter told one of President Trump's accounts (the re-election campaign account 'Team Trump') to remove a tweet containing coronavirus misinformation, and the account was locked from tweeting until the post was removed.
There were initially conflicting reports, which cleared up after an hour or so of an initial report.
From @Twitter: The @TeamTrump Tweet you referenced is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again."
- Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) August 6, 2020
NEW: Twitter has blocked a video shared by President Trump's account and reportedly has locked the account from tweeting until after the video is removed. pic.twitter.com/4oBvT4uC6c
- Evan Rosenfeld (@Evan_Rosenfeld) August 6, 2020
Trump did tweet the video @TeamTrump posted but as you can see that's now a dead link.
Punitive action only against the Trump campaign account, not Trump's main account, Twitter says. https://t.co/GA9ixfUJPV https://t.co/X7lNuQDVzY
- Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) August 6, 2020
Facebook also took action against the same harmful content. It was the first time Facebook took action against Trump content and removed the false information from view.
From the Washington Post:
Breaking: Twitter said it will require President Trump's campaign account to remove a post containing coronavirus misinformation, banning the account from tweeting until it does so.
Team Trump's tweet of a video clip from a Fox News interview - in which President Trump said that children are almost immune" from covid-19 - violates the site's rules against misinformation, the company said. Twitter hid the post and said the account will not be able to tweet again until he deletes it, although it can appeal the decision.
Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley said the tweet "is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again."
Read more at the WaPo: 'Facebook, Twitter penalize Trump for posts containing coronavirus misinformation'
Reuters: A tweet containing the video that was posted by the Trump campaign's @TeamTrump account and shared by the president was also later hidden by Twitter Inc for breaking its COVID-19 misinformation rules.
- Vincent Lee (@Rover829) August 6, 2020
This not what happened, per Twitter spokesperson:
The @TeamTrump account was briefly locked out, not @realDonaldTrump which retweeted the post that violated Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation guidelines
President Trump was never banned from tweeting. https://t.co/DZA2ZBFh5x
- Will Steakin (@wsteaks) August 6, 2020