Facebook removes President Trump's post with false information

Facebook has removed a post by President Donald Trump that claims coronavirus can be less deadly than the flu.

A spokesperson for Facebook told Daily Hive that the company removed the post for spreading incorrect information about the severity of coronavirus.

In addition to posting on Facebook, Trump took to Twitter with the same message.

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Unlike Facebook, Twitter decided to keep Trump’s tweet posted as it “may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

The site also added a disclaimer to the tweet that it could be spreading “misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”

Twitter

The tweet in question compared the coronavirus to the flu, with Trump writing “Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it.”

Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24,000 to 62,000 deaths had been reported across the country due to the flu from October 1, 2019 through April 4, 2020,

Since January 20, 2020, there have been 215,506 recorded deaths in the US due to coronavirus.

Daily Hive has reached out to Facebook for comment.