Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter scramble to remove a video touting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure, after it was shared by Trump and his allies

Social media lights up with viral videos touting hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus cure. It's not. — Hydroxychloroquine …

CNET 2020-07-28 Jackson Ryan

Context & Ripple Effects

This is the second time in three months the major platforms have moved against a viral medical-misinformation video: in May they pulled the "Plandemic" conspiracy trailer from Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo. What makes this round different is the source — the hydroxychloroquine video was amplified by Trump himself, the same figure whose earlier claims about UV light and disinfectants the platforms had declined to touch in a May decision to leave his posts up.

First-order effects

Twitter goes beyond deletion and temporarily locks Donald Trump Jr.'s account for sharing the "misleading and potentially harmful" clip, while Facebook and YouTube work to strip reuploaded versions across their networks.

Second-order effects

The May precedent of exempting Trump's own COVID-19 claims no longer holds: enforcement now reaches the president's inner circle, forcing the platforms to defend a consistent line between official statements and ally-shared misinformation.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds through the successful suppression of the second "Plandemic" video weeks later, the platforms have a working playbook — rapid cross-platform takedowns plus account penalties — that turns viral health misinformation from an unsolvable whack-a-mole problem into a coordinated response, at growing political cost around election-season content rules.

The trend: Platform moderation of health misinformation is escalating from passive non-enforcement on political figures to proactive, coordinated cross-platform takedowns with account-level penalties.

Discussion

@surabees Andrew Surabian on x
BREAKING: @Twitter & @jack have suspended @DonaldJTrumpJr for posting a viral video of medical doctors talking about Hydroxychloroquine. Big Tech is the biggest threat to free expression in America today & they're continuing to engage in open election interference - full stop. ht…
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
The #2 most-engaged post on Facebook today is a Breitbart video of a group of doctors claiming that hydroxychloroquine is “a cure for Covid” and “you don't need a mask.” 14 million views in 6 hours. (For scale, Plandemic got ~8 million in a few days.)
@brandyzadrozny Brandy Zadrozny on x
That Breitbart video from the doctors claiming that Hydroxychloroquine cures the coronavirus has been going crazy in anti-vax, anti-mask, reopen Facebook Groups today. Its at >20 mil views on FB. And that doesn't include all the private groups it's been spreading through. https:/…
@sheeraf Sheera Frenkel on x
Still waiting for answers from @Facebook and @Youtube about this viral coronavirus misinformation video. Some versions have been removed, but I've found a dozen others that are still live, (with millions of views each). Oh, and Trump just shared it.
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
facebook cannot manage mis/disinformation at its scale. if videos can spread that widely before the company takes note (as they have time and time again) then there's no real hope. it's not a matter of finding a fix - the platform is the problem. https://twitter.com/...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
i suppose i've staked out a radical position here but i don't think facebook — as we know it or as they want to exist — can exist without truly warping people's perceptions of reality. any truly meaningful reform would make facebook operate in unrecognizable ways
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
you can say whatever you want about intent of execs or the negative effects of losing an information distribution platform of facebook's scale. you can talk about free speech. but all of it pales in comparison to the fact that it's impossible to moderate at scale
@kathrynw5 Kathryn Watson on x
Stella Immanuel, Trump's New Favorite COVID-19 Doctor, Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
my argument is diff: even if it had Twitter-esque values around how it wants to be seen as a company & aggressive moderation...stuff like plandemic would likely still get through bc of scale and mechanics. to get rid of that liability would be to change fb as to be unrecognizable
@parkermolloy Parker Molloy on x
Yeah, but hey, maybe Facebook shouldn't have partnered with Breitbart, the site that posted the video, as part of it's “news” program, @cwarzel. Just a thought! https://twitter.com/...
@peterjhasson Peter J. Hasson on x
Any platform that allows people to quickly spread information will also allow people to quickly spread misinformation. People have spread misinformation in chain emails for decades. https://twitter.com/...
@redsteeze Stephen L. Miller on x
Yes we can't have users on social media sharing misleading videos with their friends and colleagues. That's our job! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@rubinreport Dave Rubin on x
Absolutely ridiculous. Tons of people were sharing that video. Pretty sure this is exactly why Trump removed the Section 230 protections. You can still find Don over on his Locals community, which he owns and controls at https://triggered.locals.com/. https://twitter.com/...
@alexberenson Alex Berenson on x
Yep, when the media will not report accurately on the realities of who's dying, the fact that hospital systems are far from overrun, and the reality that most new “cases” in the Sunbelt are asymptomatic - People are going to start looking for and believing conspiracy theories. ht…
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
stuff like today's covid thing will happen. always. might be 1 mega viral post out of millions of rule violations they caught that day. but bc fb can distribute it like no other broadcast platform in history, it'll go huge. and w/ misinfo could be all it takes to change a mind
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
Copies of this video are still floating around on Facebook. One posted by Diamond and Silk 3 hours ago has racked up another 5.7 million views. I can't remember any video that spread this quickly.
@oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x
A video featuring a group of doctors making false/dubious claims related to coronavirus was removed by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on Monday. The video went viral and, oh, the President of the United States shared various versions of it. W/@passantino https://www.cnn.com/...
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x
Facebook is a disinformation delivery system https://twitter.com/...
@marshallcohen Marshall Cohen on x
THIS IS INSANE. Facebook allows a video containing dangerous lies about Covid to rack up 14 million views. Imagine the public uproar if this same clip aired on cable news. On a great night, that's 2 million viewers. The video on Facebook got 7x that reach — is anyone outraged? ht…
@libertarianblue Allum Bokhari on x
🚨🚨🚨Facebook AND YouTube AND Twitter Censor Viral Video of Doctors Speaking Out on Coronavirus🚨🚨 🚨 Video had over 17 million views on Facebook and over 1 million views on Twitter before it was taken down. https://www.breitbart.com/... via @BreitbartNews
@kaitlancollins Kaitlan Collins on x
The message from Twitter says his account will stay up but he can only send direct messages and can't tweet, etc. for the next 12 hours.
@seanmdav Sean Davis on x
Big Tech is irreparably corrupt. https://thefederalist.com/...
@oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x
FWIW, the video Donald Trump Jr. tweeted didn't just praise hydroxychloroquine. It featured a doctor falsely declare hydroxychloroquine to be a “cure” for coronavirus and say “you don't need masks” to prevent the spread.
@mzhemingway Mollie on x
More censorship — and 2020 election interference — from Twitter. Donald Trump Jr. Suspended From Twitter Over Video Promoting Hydroxychloroquine https://thefederalist.com/...

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