Twitter suspends Donald Trump Jr.’s account for spreading COVID-19 misinformation

Donald Trump Jr. is temporarily blocked from using Twitter after violating a platform policy.

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According to Deadline, his access to use the social media website is denied for 12 hours after he uploaded a video claiming hydroxychloroquine to be the cure for COVID-19. The video also spread misinformation about wearing protective masks.

A spokesperson from Twitter informed Deadline that Trump Jr. “was in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy.”

Twitter’s rules for coronavirus content, last updated April 1, explicitly state the company will remove tweets that include “description of alleged cures for COVID-19, which are not immediately harmful but are known to be ineffective, are not applicable to the COVID-19 context, or are being shared with the intent to mislead others, even if made in jest.”

According to Deadline, although he lost the right to publicly tweet for 12 hours, other Twitter functions such as direct messaging will be available.

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Deadline also reports Twitter added a disclaimer to their trending topic section about the drug stating “the FDA says hydroxychloroquine is ‘unlikely to be effective’ in treating COVID-19 and has revoked an emergency use authorization for the drug.”

The tweet in question contained a video promoted by Breitbart. President Donald Trump himself allegedly shared the same content. Deadline reports the commander in chief retweeted clips of the same program. It no longer exists on Facebook, Twitter, nor YouTube.

theGrio previously reported that the president himself once claimed to take hydroxychloroquine and zinc daily to protect himself from COVID-19.

According to Deadline, a screenshot of Trump Jr.’s tweet displayed the message, “This is a much watch!! So different from the narrative that everyone is running with.”

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