Facebook has taken down a post by US President Donald Trump, which it says violated its rules against sharing misinformation about the coronavirus.
US President Donald Trump (file photo) Photo: AFP
The post contained a video clip, from an interview with Fox & Friends earlier on Wednesday, where Trump claimed children are "almost immune" to Covid-19.
"This video includes false claims a group of people is immune from Covid-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation," a Facebook spokesman said.
The White House did not immediately respond.
The spokesman said it was the first time the social media company had removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation.
It also appeared to be the first reported instance of Facebook taking down a post from the president for breaching its misinformation rules.
The company had previously removed ads from Trump's election campaign for breaking misinformation rules, in that case around a national census.
It had also taken down both Trump posts and campaign ads that showed a red inverted triangle, a symbol the Nazis used to identify political prisoners, for violating its policy against organized hate.
Twitter has taken action against the US president since May, when it first fact-checked a Donald Trump tweet and warned readers his claims about mail-in ballots were false and had been debunked.
The move prompted the president to threaten legislation that could scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook.
In June Twitter labelled a video tweeted by Trump as having "manipulated media" for the first time. The social media company has also sanctioned the president's son Donald Trump Jr, suspending his tweets for 12 hours for a breach of its code on coronavirus misinformation.
- Reuters