Twitter deletes Don Jr.’s tweet sharing anti-mask conspiracy video
Last night, the president and the right-wing media machine took a dangerous COVID-19 misinformation video viral on social media.
Created by openly white nationalist “news” website Breitbart, the video shows a group of people wearing lab coats and calling themselves doctors telling the nation that they don’t need to wear masks and that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Facebook allowed the video to rack up 600,000 shares and over 14 million views before they removed it from their website for sharing “false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” but the damage is likely already done.
Twitter has also taken measures to punish the purveyors of the video, sparking outrage from conservatives by temporarily limiting Don Jr.’s Twitter account and deleting tweets containing the video.
As usual, right-wingers began crying crocodile tears that they’re being victimized by liberal tech companies because they aren’t being allowed to push a pseudoscientific disinformation campaign that will put countless lives in danger.
President Trump has criminally mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic from the outset, and now it appears he and his family are deliberately sabotaging the efforts of the medical community to promote mask use in order to push bizarre conspiracy theories that only exist to make the president feel better about his failures.
It would be nice if Don Jr.’s Twitter account was permanently suspended — which is what he and the rest of his conspiracist science-denying buddies deserve — but at least the tech companies are making it clear that there will be consequences for promoting these kinds of videos.
