Twitter partially suspends Donald Trump Jr.'s account over COVID-19 post

Trump Jr.'s account was suspended after he posted a viral video of doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine.

By AARON REICH
Donald Trump Jr. speaks to young people waiting to hear his father, U.S. President Donald Trump, deliver an "Address to Young Americans" at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., June 23, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA)
Donald Trump Jr. speaks to young people waiting to hear his father, U.S. President Donald Trump, deliver an "Address to Young Americans" at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., June 23, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA)
Twitter partially suspended the account of US President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. for spreading misleading and potentially harmful information about the coronavirus, his spokesman Andrew Surabian announced over social media.
According to Surabian, Twitter partially suspended Trump Jr.'s account after he posted a viral video of doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine.
The drug in question is primarily used to prevent and treat malaria, and has been long touted by Trump and others as a potential if not effective means of prevention against COVID-19.
Health officials have stated that there is no evidence that the drug is effective against the coronavirus, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have cautioned against its use.
The video, originally shared by right-wing news outlet Breitbart, had shown four individuals identifying as doctors standing before the Supreme Court building.
One of them, a woman who claims to be a Houston-based doctor named Stella Immanuel, said that Hydoxochloriquine was the cure to the coronavirus, and stated that wearing face masks was unnecessary.
According to the Huffington Post, Immanuel is the head  head of Fire Power Ministries, which appears to be located in a Houston strip mall and promotes a baptism of fire program that offers “miracles, healings and deliverance.”
The video was pulled from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter due to violating policies regarding spreading false information about COVID-19.
However, Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. both shared the video, with Trump retweeting it and Trump Jr. tweeting it. Both have been pulled from the site.
“This is a much [sic] watch!!! So different from the narrative that everyone is running with,” Trump Jr. wrote in his tweet.

Surabian then accused the platform of interfering in the upcoming presidential election.
"Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they're continuing to engage in open election interference - full stop," he wrote.

Despite also sharing the video, the president's account was not affected. When asked why, a Twitter spokesperson said  “The president did not tweet the video in question, he retweeted it. Therefore, the account owner of the tweet he retweeted will face enforcement action,” according to the Huffington Post.
Trump Jr.'s partial suspension will only last for a 12 hour period.
This is not the first time the Trump family has had issues with the social media platform. Back in May, the platform hit one of the president's posts with a fact-checking label after he tweeted about mail-in ballots.
According to Trump's original tweet, "there is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed." The president went on to say that "This will be a Rigged Election."
In a link on the fact-checking label, Twitter wrote that "Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to 'a Rigged Election.' However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud."
Trump then accused Twitter, and by extension Big Tech as a whole, of election interference, and threatened to crack down on social media.
Omri Nahmias and Reuters contributed to this report.


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