Twitter removes Trump's retweeted post spreading misinformation about COVID-19

Twitter removed the post spreading false information of COVID-19 pandemic after US President Donald Trump retweeted the claim that discounted the actual death toll of the disease in the United States over the weekend. Originally posted by account ‘Mel Q’ which is a follower of a proofless conspiracy theory QAnon and it was copied from a Facebook post claiming that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had “quietly updated the COVID-19 number to admit that only 6 per cent” of the reported deaths or nearly 9,000 people “actually died” from the disease.

As per the tweet, which is now removed, the remaining people “had 2-3 other serious illnesses”. However, Twitter removed the post and now displays a message saying, it “is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules.” Company’s spokesperson reportedly said that the tweet had violated the company’s COVID-19 misinformation policy. The claim reportedly appears to have been a reference to the CDC’s update of August 26 to its death toll and resources page.

It has noted that at least 6 per cent of all the deaths recorded, COVID-19 “was the only cause mentioned.” However, this does not imply that only 6 per cent of the reported deaths were caused due to the novel coronavirus instead it meant that 94 per cent of the people had at least one pre-existing medical conditions that contributed to the death.

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Trump retweets video of doctors claiming unverified information

This is not the first time that the US President had retweeted a video that either had false information or unproven claims regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, before social media platforms removed the viral video that showed doctors spreading unverified information about the novel coronavirus, Trump had retweeted it. 

The controversial video showed a group pretending to be top medical professionals in the US on the steps of the Supreme Court and claimed that neither face coverings nor the nationwide lockdowns are essential to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. It was even live-streamed by conservative media outlets in the country and was reportedly viewed over 14 million times before it was removed.

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