Facebook, Twitter Crack Down on Trump Comparing Covid to the Flu

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Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday flagged President Donald Trump for spreading false information about the coronavirus just a day after his release from Walter Reed Medical Center.

On Tuesday, Trump falsely compared Covid-19’s severity to that of the flu, saying ““Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

This comes hours after Trump was released from Walter Reed Medical Center after days of treatment for the disease, which has also infected numerous top Republicans and officials within his administration. On Twitter, Trump’s message remained up for hours, but now the website has flagged it for violating their policies prohibiting coronavirus misinformation.

Twitter’s move comes after CNN reported that Trump’s message was posted on Facebook as well, but was scrubbed there too for misinformation rule-breaking.

In the last few months, Trump’s social media messages have been repeatedly flagged by fact-checks and misinformation warnings. One instance occurred when Trump was pushing his unsubstantiated claims about mass corruption from mail-in voting, and social media platforms also took action when Trump pushed clips of himself claiming children are “almost immune” to the coronavirus.