Facebook has removed a post posted by President Donald Trump’s account for violations of its misinformation policy, the company confirmed to The Verge. The video posted was of a Trump interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends program, in which the president claimed children are “almost immune” to COVID-19, which is false. The interview also included Trump saying COVID-19 “is going to go away,” and that his view is that “schools should open” because “this it will go away like things go away.”
A recent study conduced by infectious disease experts at Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that children younger than five can carry the virus at levels far higher than adults, although there is still debate over whether children can pass COVID-19 to adults.
Trump pushes the claim that children are “almost immune” to make his case: “My view is the school’s should open. This thing’s going away. It will go away like things go away.”
So this morning he’s said “this thing’s going away” and “it will go by.” This is where we’re at. pic.twitter.com/7KEICeU77T
— The Recount (@therecount) August 5, 2020
The ongoing conversation around the virus’ infectious capability among children is at the center of contentious school reopening plans throughout the US, as various federal, state, and local officials are deliberating how and to what extent to reopen classrooms in the fall. School districts that have reopened or are in the planning stages of reopening in states like Georgia and Indiana have already started seeing spikes in positive COVID-19 cases.
“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 spokesperson tells The Verge.
This is only the latest Facebook post of Trump’s to be removed over the last few months, since the company refused to take action on a Trump post in late May that included threats of military violence against protestors. Since then, Facebook has removed Trump ads that made use of Nazi imagery, a four-minute video over a copyright complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and a misleading video edited to disparage CNN.
