Facebook removes Trump post claiming children are ‘almost immune’ to COVID-19
Facebook has taken down a video by U.S. President Donald Trump in which he said children are “almost immune” to COVID-19.
The company claimed that the post violated its rules against sharing misinformation about the coronavirus.
“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.
He added that it was the first time that the social media company had removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation.
In response to the takedown, Courtney Parella, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign criticized Silicon Valley for being biased against Trump, saying “social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So far, the U.S. has reported nearly five million confirmed coronavirus cases, a quarter of the worldwide total, and over 161,000 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that while adults make up most of the known COVID-19 cases to date, some children and infants have been sick with the disease and they can also transmit it to others.
A study made by the Science journal has shown that children under age 14 are between one-third and one-half as likely as adults to contract the virus.
