Twitter Time-Out: Donald Trump Jr’s Account Restricted After Posting Misleading COVID-19 Videos

Twitter announced Tuesday that it would be restricting the account of Donald Trump Jr. after the president’s son posted videos that spread misinformation about COVID-19. The restriction, including the inability to tweet, will remain in place for 12 hours.

“We did not suspend the account. The screenshot shared directly says that Twitter required the Tweet to be deleted because it violated our rules, and that we would limit some account functionality for 12 hours,” the social media platform told Reuters.

We've been using labels and warnings on Tweets to help reduce the spread of misleading information and provide context from trusted sources.

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The video shared by Trump Jr. and retweeted by President Trump was first published by Breitbart News. It involves various doctors providing misleading or outright false information about coronavirus treatments and prevention. Among its claims were the idea that masks are not needed to prevent the spread of the virus and the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine can be an effective treatment for it.

Both statements run counter to conclusions made by the vast majority of medical professionals worldwide. The FDA recently revoked its clearance for the use of hydroxychloroquine as an emergency treatment for coronavirus, following numerous reports of individuals suffering severe side effects from consuming the drug.

Twitter has removed both Trump Jr.’s tweet and President Trump's retweet from public view and asked that the tweet be deleted. The video has also been taken down by Facebook and YouTube. A screenshot taken of the video on Facebook prior to its deletion showed 17 million views.

The White House did not respond to media requests for a comment on the incident. A representative for Trump Jr. said that it was “beyond the pale” for Twitter to issue these restrictions.