Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter removed a COVID-19 video tweeted by President Trump about hydroxychloroquine saving lives — but 14 million people had already watched the video

We’ve written about big tech censorship in the past. But we now live in uncharted territory where no one, not even the President Donald Trump, is immune from big tech censorship. In a coordinated attack on First Amendment, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter removed a coronavirus video tweeted by President Trump about malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is saving lives. Unfortunately for the big tech companies, 14 million people had already watched the video.

The video from Breitbart appeared to be taken down on sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The video, which got more than 14 million views on Facebook alone, according to CNN, which cited CrowdTangle data, has since been taken down from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter — including removing tweets that the president shared.

One of the doctors, who was identified in reports as Dr. Stella Immanuel, claimed that she treated more than 350 coronavirus patients — some with diabetes and high blood pressure — and not a single one died after being administered hydroxychloroquine, zinc and Zithromax. She claimed that she even administers the drug in prophylactic measures.

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” a Twitter representative told the media. “We are taking action in line with our policy.”

https://twitter.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/1287925891532754949

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” a Twitter representative told the media. In another tweet, the Facebook representative Andy Stone said: “Yes, we removed it for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.”

“We’re showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful COVID-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO,” Stone said.

As Mark recently wrote about newsworthiness: "A handful of times a year, we leave up content that would otherwise violate our policies if the public interest value outweighs the risk of harm." It being from a publisher has zero to do with it."

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) July 28, 2020

https://twitter.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/1287925891532754949