Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter account has been temporarily frozen after the president’s son shared a video containing misleading information about COVID-19. Trump Jr.’s account remained up, but he was unable to tweet for 12 hours.
The video, originally from the far-right news outlet Breitbart, is filled with dangerous misinformation about the global health crisis such as praising the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine. The video has already been removed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, but not before amassing more than 14 million views on Facebook alone, reports CNN.
“This is a much watch!!!” wrote Trump Jr. in the now-removed tweet. The post was replaced with a message stating, "This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules."
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The video shows a group of people dressed in white lab coats claiming to be from a group called America's Frontline Doctors. Throughout the live-streamed video, members of the group claim that masks are unnecessary and that the real cure is hydroxychloroquine, commonly used to treat arthritis and prevent malaria. One of the speakers, Stella Immanuel, a registered physician in Texas, alleged that she has successfully treated hundreds of patients with the drug. She is also known for sermons posted on YouTube and articles on her website in which she claims that medical problems such as endometriosis, cysts, and infertility are caused by sex with "spirit husbands" and "spirit wives" which, according to Immanuel, is when witches and demons have sex with people in a dream world. Refinery29 reached out to America’s Frontline Doctors for comment.
President Donald Trump shared the same video, and while his tweet was also removed, no actions appear to have been taken to freeze or suspend his account.
(
)The President's son is now sharing the viral misinfo video denouncing supposed "fake doctors" and saying "you don't need a mask." pic.twitter.com/RJIx1CDnYh
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 28, 2020
According to Twitter’s user policies, there are levels of enforcement options, ranging from limiting a tweet’s visibility up through permanent account suspension. In Trump Jr.’s case, the tweet in question was removed and it appears that his account was placed on the shortest duration of read-only mode. “When an account is in read-only mode, others will still be able to see and engage with the account,” reads Twitter’s guidelines. The company noted that Trump Jr.'s account was not permanently suspended. Refinery29 reached out to Twitter for comment.
This account has not been permanently suspended. Per the screenshot, the Tweet requires deletion because it violates our rules (sharing misinformation on COVID-19), and the account will have limited functionality for 12 hours. More in our rules: https://t.co/0wHWVV5QS4 https://t.co/0gq7rlaNw7
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 28, 2020
Trump Jr. has not commented publicly regarding his Twitter account. Amid several retweets of news outlets and people praising hydroxychloroquine as the “cure” for coronavirus, the president has yet to tweet about it either. On July 1, the FDA updated its information on hydroxychloroquine to include a review of safety issues if used to treat COVID-19 which includes serious heart rhythm issues, blood disorders, and the possibility of liver failure.