Facebook Removes Video Posted By Trump Over 'Violation Of Platform Rules'

(Reuters) Facebook Inc on Wednesday took down a post by U.S. President Donald Trump , which the company said violated its rules against sharing misinformation about the coronavirus.

The post contained a video clip, from an interview with Fox & Friends earlier in the day, in which Trump claimed that children are almost immune to COVID-19.

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.

A tweet containing the video that was posted by the Trump campaigns @TeamTrump account and shared by the president was also later hidden by Twitter Inc for breaking its COVID-19 misinformation rules.

A Twitter spokesman said the @TeamTrump account owner would be required to remove the tweet before they could tweet again.

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.

The White House and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. During a briefing at the White House, Trump repeated his claim that the virus had little impact on children.

Children handle it very well, he told reporters. If you look at the numbers, in terms of mortality, fatalities ... for children under a certain age ... their immune systems are very very strong and very powerful. They seem to be able to handle it very well and thats according to every statistical claim.

It was the first time Facebook had removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation, the companys spokesman said.

It also appeared to be the first reported instance of the social media company taking down a post from the president for breaching its misinformation rules.

This is the first time a Trump post has been removed for COVID-19 misinformation.

Facebook has also in the past removed posts by the Trump campaign which used symbols also used by Nazis. https://t.co/dH75PjB0J2

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This is the first time a Trump post has been removed for COVID-19 misinformation.

Facebook has also in the past removed posts by the Trump campaign which used symbols also used by Nazis. https://t.co/dH75PjB0J2
Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 5, 2020

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Facebook has taken heat from lawmakers and its own employees in recent months for not taking action on inflammatory posts by Trump.

The company has previously removed ads from Trumps election campaign for breaking misinformation rules, in that case around a national census.

It also took down both Trump posts and campaign ads that showed a red inverted triangle, a symbol the Nazis used to identify political prisoners, for violating its policy against organized hate.