Trump Covid post deleted by Facebook and hidden by Twitter

BBC World News ^ | 10/6/2020

[Beave Meister]

Facebook has deleted a post in which President Trump had claimed Covid-19 was "less lethal" than the flu.

Mr Trump is at the White House after three days of hospital treatment having tested positive for the virus.

He wrote the US had "learned to live with" flu season, "just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"

Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information".

Users have to click past the alert to read the tweet.

"We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post," said Andy Stone, policy communications manager at Facebook.

An exact mortality rate for Covid-19 is not known, but it is thought to be substantially higher - possible 10 times or more - than most flu strains, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The President has reacted by posting: "REPEAL SECTION 230!!!"

This is a reference to a law that says social networks are not responsible for the content posted by their users.

But it allows the firms to engage in "good-Samaritan blocking", including the removal of content they judge to be offensive, harassment or violent.

If the law were to be repealed, social media companies would face being sued over the edits and changes of user content they made.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Thank you, Think-Tank Republicans, for wasting the better part of two decades standing on your soapbox and crowing the ideologically pure position that “we can’t interfere, they’re private companies!”

Prepare to be hoisted on your own petard.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Twitter hiding a post is sort of like putting up a big red button that says “Do Not Touch This Button!”

You just know what is going to happen.

[enumerated]

I just deleted my FB - Bye Facebook, you worthless piece of crap.

[9YearLurker]

I just came across it on Steve Pieczenik’s twitter feed today.

It is aiming, rightly IMO, to be the largest class action suit ever.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The day that Twitter and Facebook say that you have to pay $5 a month each to be a ‘member’....a lot of people will ask if the membership is worth the money. I don’t think that day is that far away now.

The profit social media companies make by mining data about their users far exceeds $5 a month. There's no way they'll surrender any part of that by imposing a fee gate.

[Yardstick]

His tweet is accurate since he specifies “most populations.”

But even if it weren’t accurate, it shouldn’t be blocked. Let the other people on Twitter call him out and correct him, or other politicians, or the news media or whatever. To just disappear his tweet is wrong.

[Trillian]

How else are they going to keep people in a state of fear?

[silent majority rising]

I hope you are right. I quit using it early on when I realized how destructive it is. It is much akin to drinking 3 highballs in about 15 minutes. It removes the direct responsibility and places a need for emotional support it its stead. My wife still uses it like an addict, though. Sigh...