Trump Jr's Twitter account suspended after 'potentially harmful' post falsely promoted a cure for coronavirus
President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr's account was suspended by Twitter on Monday, July 27, for posting "misleading and potentially harmful information" about the novel coronavirus. The same controversial tweet was also shared by the president, however, the post does not appear on his account anymore and has been replaced with a message suggesting that it is "no longer available."
The move by the social media giant comes amid ongoing tensions between Trump and Twitter over the microblogging site's approach to the Republican's post. A Twitter spokesperson on Monday confirmed the move, saying the firm has temporarily locked Trump Jr's account. "The Tweet is in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy," a spokesperson said. "The account will be locked until the account owner removes the tweet."
The company also added that other similar tweets concerning Covid-19 will also be removed from the site because they are "in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy." Trump Jr's account suspension news was first shared by Republican strategist Andrew Surabian, who claimed that the suspension suggested that Twitter is a "threat to free expression" and it was "continuing to engage in open election interference." He, however, posted a screenshot of the censored tweet, which made it clear that its content was banned over accusations of misinformation.
The president's son will not be able to tweet for the next 12 hours or use the popular micro-blogging site's other features, like following other users and liking other posts. The controversial tweet shared by the president and Trump Jr falsely promoted the "drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the novel coronavirus disease." The post also included a video, which showed people claiming to be doctors who falsely argued that "you don't need masks" and that studies showing hydroxychloroquine may not be effective are "fake science."
Multiple social media giants, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, have been censoring and removing the particular video considering their policies around misinformation about Covid-19. The video was also shared by Trump on Monday, which was promptly removed by Twitter.
The social media giant's move comes after it intensified censorship of the content released by President Trump. Twitter, last month, had blocked a tweet from the Republican leader, which warned anti-racism protesters that any attempts to set up an "autonomous zone" near the White House would be met with force. The company stated that Trump's pledge to use force constituted "abusive behavior."
Trump, on May 27, had also threatened to shut down social media networks nearly a day after Twitter began fact-checking the contents of his tweets. The president hit out at social media platforms, stating that Republicans feel that these platforms silence conservative voices and that his administration would either strongly regulate or shut these platforms in the country.
"Republicans feel that social media platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," Trump tweeted. "We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale mail-in ballots take root in our country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, social media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!" he added in his tweet.