August 6, 2020: Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. blocked a video shared by accounts linked to U.S. President Donald Trump for violating their policies on coronavirus misinformation.
Facebook on Wednesday said that it had removed a video post by US President Donald Trump in which he contended that children are "almost immune" to the coronavirus, a claim the social network called "harmful COVID misinformation." 
The post contained a video clip, from an interview with Fox & Friends (morning news show hosted by Fox News Channel) earlier in the day, in which Trump claimed that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19.
“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” a Facebook spokesman said.
The move came as Facebook faces pressure to prevent the spread of misinformation while simultaneously being accused of silencing viewpoints by calling for posts to be truthful.
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. A Twitter spokesman said the @TeamTrump account owner would be required to remove the tweet before they could tweet again.
Trump defended his comments when questioned about them during a White House press briefing.
"I'm talking about (being immune) from getting very sick," Trump said. 
"If you look at children I mean they are able to throw it off very easily."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
August 6, 2020: Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. blocked a video shared by accounts linked to U.S. President Donald Trump for violating their policies on coronavirus misinformation.
August 6, 2020: Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. blocked a video shared by accounts linked to U.S. President Donald Trump for violating their policies on coronavirus misinformation.
Facebook on Wednesday said that it had removed a video post by US President Donald Trump in which he contended that children are "almost immune" to the coronavirus, a claim the social network called "harmful COVID misinformation."
The post contained a video clip, from an interview with Fox & Friends (morning news show hosted by Fox News Channel) earlier in the day, in which Trump claimed that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19.
“This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” a Facebook spokesman said.
The move came as Facebook faces pressure to prevent the spread of misinformation while simultaneously being accused of silencing viewpoints by calling for posts to be truthful.
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. A Twitter spokesman said the @TeamTrump account owner would be required to remove the tweet before they could tweet again.
Trump defended his comments when questioned about them during a White House press briefing.
"I'm talking about (being immune) from getting very sick," Trump said.
"If you look at children I mean they are able to throw it off very easily."