Social media platforms are keen on flagging down false claims about COVID-19 and this, apparently, did not exempt claims coming from President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, multiple publications reported that Facebook and Twitter have flagged down the post of POTUS Donald Trump about COVID-19 misinformation. Accordingly, Facebook has taken down the said post completely.
Meanwhile, the same claim still is up on Twitter but has been tagged with a label of “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,” says ABC News.
Donald Trump continues to downplay COVID-19
The current President has since been slammed for his take on the coronavirus that has claimed more 200,000 lives in the U.S. Recently, Trump himself tested positive for COVID-19, including his wife, FLOTUS Melania, and the growing number of White House staff.
Only three days in on his supposed quarantine at Walter Reeds, he returns to the White House, still with the contagious virus. His very publicized return was to supposedly portray a show of courage.
In a Twitter video, he addressed the people saying, “don’t let it dominate you, don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
This time around, Trump tweeted about the flu season. Per CNBC, his post claimed that the flu is “more deadly” than the COVID-19. His tweet entailed a statistic of “sometimes over 100,000” people dying from the flu, despite vaccine availability.
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
However, as CNBC cites CDC data, there’s been an estimated 22,000 fatalities during the 2019-2020 flu season. The deadliest since 2010 was during 2017-2018, with the recorded deaths of 61,000.
So, that leaves at least a 41,000-deficit from Trump’s statistics. Per CNN, about 178,000 people have died from the flu in the last five years(2015-2020). However, COVID-19 has taken more than 210,000 lives in a span of months alone.
A Facebook spokesperson confirms the removal of the president’s post by issuing a statement which reads:
“We remove incorrect information about the severity of COVID-19, and have now removed this post.”
Trump demands to “repeal section 230”
After the president’s post got flagged down, Trump tweeted: “repeal section 230.”
REPEAL SECTION 230!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020
CNBC notes that what Donald Trump may have been referring to is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The statute permits online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to moderate the content posted by its users.
These platforms can also “remove harmful content without being penalized.”
Furthermore, Section 230 shields said platforms from liability for users’ contents posted on their sites. Trump has since expressed his dissent on this, per ABC News.
He called Section 230 a “blanket immunity.”
Featured image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr