In recent weeks, we’ve seen Twitter really take a stand against the spread of misinformation by the president. Now, they are taking a stand against the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Twitter has locked his account, after he posted a viral video of doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine. The President had also tweeted this same video, and Twitter removed the tweet. But since Jr isn’t a politician or a world leader, different rules apply to his account.
And thus, Twitter locked his account for 12 hours, or until he removes the tweet in question.
Twitter claims the tweet violated its rules
According to Twitter, the tweet violated its rules. Which was spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
The company also stated that the account in question will have limited functionality for 12 hours, or until he removes the tweet, whichever comes first.
What this means is that Donald Trump Jr. is unable to tweet, like tweets or retweet anything. But he can still use his Direct Messages.
Republican strategist Andrew Surabian shared the screenshot of the email from Twitter on Twitter. And claimed that “Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they’re continuing to engage in open election interference – full stop.” Since that seems to be the Republicans stance for this election.
This is not censorship
Much to the surprise of the President and many republicans, this is not censorship by Twitter. This is Twitter working to combat the misinformation and fake news that is out there.
This is something that the President complained about up and down the campaign trail in 2016, and now that it is affecting him, he has a different stance on the issue. What a surprise.
Facebook is also doing similar things, but since the Trumps prefer to use Twitter, it is getting all of the publicity of removing Tweets from the president’s Twitter account. Instead of Facebook.
Resharing a viral video that has known misinformation, is a big mistake. Especially for someone like Donald Trump Jr that has millions of people following him. And he can easily influence them all. Twitter is taking a stance on misinformation about COVID-19 in particular since it’s such a big issue. And we’re learning more about COVID-19 every day. But there’s one thing we know for sure, thanks to the FDA, Hydroxychloroquine is not the cure to COVID-19. Even though the president really wants us to believe that is the case.