Donald Trump Jr. has had his Twitter account temporarily restricted after he shared a video of a doctor making several false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, including that people “don’t need masks” to keep from spreading the virus.
A spokesperson for Twitter told CNN that Trump’s account will have limited functionality for 12 hours after he posted the video, which was originally released by Breitbart News. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all removed the video soon after its publication on their platforms. President Donald Trump has retweeted multiple versions of the video, but did not upload the videos himself, which his son did.
Twitter told Vice in a statement that the restriction is a “temporary lockout until the Tweet is deleted — not a suspension.”
The company added, “Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy” on the coronavirus, which includes “broadening our definition of harm” to include “content when it has a clear call to action that could directly pose a risk to people’s health or well-being,” according to an announcement in April.
Twitter notes that under this new guidance, users will be required to remove any tweets that contain “Denial of global or local health authority recommendations to decrease someone’s likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 with the intent to influence people into acting against recommended guidance.”