Facebook removes Brazilian President Bolsonaro's video claiming COVID vaccines cause AIDS

Social media giants Facebook and Instagram have taken down a live broadcast from Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro's account in which he claimed that fully vaccinated people in the United Kingdom are contracting AIDS faster than expected. In an email reply to The Associated Press (AP), Facebook's press office acknowledged that the post was removed on Sunday night, October 24, because it violated Facebook's policy on COVID-19 vaccines.

"Our policies do not accept assertions that COVID-19 vaccines kill or significantly harm individuals," the official stated in the email. However, the company refrained from replying to queries about why it took three days for the much-maligned clip to be removed, or whether language barriers played a part as Bolsonaro was speaking in Portuguese, reported the news agency. 

The claim was one of the most strange ones concerning Coronavirus vaccines that the Brazilian President has made so far, despite the fact that he had tested positive last year and is still unvaccinated. He spent months spreading misinformation regarding vaccines, particularly the Sinovac vaccine. He also warned Brazilians that anyone experiencing negative effects would have no legal recourse against Pfizer, which he joked could include women growing beards or individuals converting into alligators, reported The AP.  

Facebook, Instagram removed Bolsonaro's post last year too

On Monday, October 25, Bolsonaro rebuked criticism he received for supposedly spreading fake news with his AIDS claim, saying he had only read a news piece published in Brazil in October. Last year, Facebook and Instagram took down posts by the far-right leader that breached COVID-19 community guidelines, including one video in which he claimed that the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine was curing COVID-19 all over the world. The medicine has been found to be ineffective in treating COVID-19 after extensive testing. Facebook also banned dozens of accounts for "coordinated inauthentic conduct," including ones used by Bolsonaro's employees and two of his Congressional lawmaker sons. 

'Social media platforms played vital role in Bolsonaro's election victory in 2018'

It should be mentioned here that Bolsonaro has 14.6 million followers on Facebook and nearly 19 million on Instagram. His election triumph in 2018 was aided by social media platforms, especially the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp. In a year's time, he is expected to run for re-election and his allies have recently been urging supporters to join rival platforms, particularly Telegram, reported the news agency. Facebook's actions in Brazil follow a flurry of stories from as many as 17 American news outlets based on internal company documents that suggest the corporations failed to appropriately and rapidly deal with disinformation in many cases.

(With AP inputs)

Image: AP/Pixabay