The son of the President of the United States was accused of posting misleading information promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine on Twitter
Twitter gave the son of the American president a 12-hour suspension from tweeting on Tuesday after he posted a link to a video to his many followers that contained what the social media company said was misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic.
Donald Trump Jr shared a video promoting the supposed coronavirus drug hydroxychloroquine, which his father, the president, has also promoted while claiming to be taking it himself as a precaution against COVID-19.
Twitter’s move has caused outrage among many of those who support the president’s son, including from the Republican strategist Andrew Surabian who has accused the social media giant of engaging in “open election interference”.
This comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Members of Parliaments that there was “no smoking gun” in the now-released Russia report, as opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed that the Prime Minister “sat on” the “extremely serious” report.
The eldest child of United States President Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana, Donald Trump Jr was accused of violating Twitter’s policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information relating to the coronavirus.
The company has said that as a result of the alleged violation, it has “temporarily limited” his account’s ability to post tweets, retweets or like anyone else’s tweets, and he is no longer able to follow new accounts, although he was still able to send direct messages.
Twitter’s action follows another incident in May during which the company hid messages from both Donald Trump senior and then the official White House account for “glorifying violence”.
The company has also labelled another of the president’s tweets about allegedly fraudulent mail-in ballots with a fact-check warning.
In response to these actions the president accused the company – and the entire social media industry – of censorship and anti-conservative bias, before signing an executive order aimed at curbing protections for the sites as publishers.
This comes after Boris Johnson has warned the nation that there are signs of a ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 in Europe, and has defended a 14-day quarantine for those arriving into the UK from Spain.
It comes as US infection rates of coronavirus have continued to climb since mid-June, with more than four million cases confirmed across the country.
Over 150,000 people in the United States have now died of COVID-19, with over 4.2 million Americans testing positive for the virus in the nation, which is the most of any country in the world.
In June three scientists behind a controversial study that suggested that the malaria drug raised the risks of death for COVID-19 patients retracted their work.
However, scientists in the United Kingdom have also put a pause on a large trial of hydroxychloroquine after early results showed that the drug had no benefit in those who were suffering from the coronavirus.
“We reviewed the data and concluded there is no evidence of a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients,” said Professor Martin Landray from the University of Oxford, who is co-leading the RECOVERY trial.
“This is not a treatment [for COVID-19],” he said.
