Search icon
Download the all-new Republic app:

Published 10:12 IST, July 29th 2020

Twitter restricts Donald Trump Jr.'s account for tweeting COVID lies; POTUS did it too

Microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr.'s ability to tweet, after he posted a misinformation video about Coronavirus

Reported by: Brigitte Fernandes
null | Image: self

Microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr.'s ability to tweet, after he posted a misinformation video featuring a doctor making false claims about the Coronavirus which stated that people 'don't need masks' to prevent the virus spread. Twitter ordered the president’s Pon to delete the misleading tweet and has also 'limited some of his account functionality including the ability to tweet for 12 hours,' a Twitter spokesperson said.

Twitter has temporarily suspended the President's son's account for violating the 'Twitter rules for the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID -19'.

READ | Watchdog group: Trump campaign improperly masking payments

The video featuring a group of doctors making false and dubious claims related to coronavirus, including that masks are unnecessary was published by a media outlet and went viral online on Monday. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have removed the video after it started to go viral.

READ | Trump again pushes unproven drug as COVID-19 treatment

Twitter also deletes Trump's tweets

United States President Donald Trump also retweeted multiple versions of the video on Twitter; however, he did not upload the video to the site. His son did and this was the reason why Twitter only took action against Trump Jr.'s account, the spokesperson said. The tweets shared by Trump were also deleted as part of Twitter's enforcement actions archive.

Trump Jr.'s spokesperson, Andy Surabian, earlier tweeted that Twitter had suspended the President son's account. Twitter informed in a statement that the account had 'not been permanently suspended', and has asked the President's son to delete the tweet with the video. The company has already removed it from public view, Surabian added.

Surabian also said that the restriction was further proof that Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online.

READ | Donald Trump first pitch announced AND cancelled but Yankees in the dark

READ | Trump seeks political shot in the arm in vaccine push

Updated 10:12 IST, July 29th 2020

LIVE TV

Republic TV is India's no.1 English news channel since its launch.