Facebook removes Trump post, citing false COVID-19 info

Facebook has taken down a post from President Trump’s official page, saying it contained “false claims” related to the novel coronavirus.

The post included a video of Trump’s interview on “Fox & Friends” early Wednesday morning in which he pushed for schools to resume in-person classes amid the pandemic, stating that young people are “almost immune” to the disease.

In a statement first reported by NBC News, a Facebook spokesperson said, “This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation.”

Facebook has previously removed Trump campaign advertisements, though Wednesday’s action is the first time the company has removed a post from the president’s page concerning COVID-19.

The Hill has reached out to Facebook and the White House for comment.

During his telephone interview on Fox News, Trump said, “If you look at children, children are almost — I would almost say definitely — but almost immune from this disease. So few — they’ve gotten stronger.”

“Hard to believe. I don’t know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do, somehow, for this. And they don’t have a problem. They just don’t have a problem,” he added.

At one point, Trump also said he wouldn’t say “totally immune” because he felt the media would cover his remarks critically, before again adding without evidence, “But the fact is, they are virtually immune from this problem, and we have to open our schools.”

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states on its website that children “do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults,” children can contract the disease.

The CDC has advised parents and guardians to limit in-person playtime among children and to “connect virtually” when possible to curb the spread of the disease.

The agency also said in a report released days ago that children could play an “important role” in spreading the disease, which has killed more than 157,000 people in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

State health officials across the country and lawmakers from both parties are still weighing when children should resume in-person classes.

Facebook has taken some action regarding posts from the Trump campaign in the past but has been pushed to take a more aggressive stance on posts from the president himself. 

This past June, the company said it removed ads from Trump’s campaign that targeted antifa and featured a symbol that Nazis used to “identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”

It also took down a campaign ad last year promoting The Women for Trump Coalition because it said it violated company policy by targeting “personal attributes.”