On Monday night, as President Donald Trump began posting about the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 following a viral video of a doctor touting its ability to not only treat but prevent the disease, Twitter removed at least three of the president’s tweets, leaving no trace of what the president wrote on the social media platform.
Tensions between the big tech website and President Trump appear to have reached a new height, as the platform has now censored several posts by President Trump that appear to have promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
The president began sharing articles and tweets promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine after a viral video of frontline doctors revealing their experiences treating COVID-19 in the field.
In place of President Trump’s tweets is a message from the platform that reads “This tweet is no longer available.”
Twitter includes a hyperlink that explains the various notices users may see on Twitter, explaining they could stem from a user deleting the tweet, Twitter deleting the tweet, or a series of other possibilities.
However, at time of publication, none of the messages Twitter identifies correspond to the message currently in place of President Trump’s censored tweets.
In the past, Twitter has occasionally removed copyrighted content posted to the president’s Twitter account, and has recently started placing notices under President Trump’s tweets that have linked to media outlets critical of the president.
President Trump has repeatedly sparred with the president throughout 2020. In may, the president signed an executive order targeting the liability immunities afforded to social media companies by the Communication Decency Act of 1996.
The legislation affords social media platforms immunity from libel written on the website by users in exchange for maintaining a neutral platform. President Trump has threatened to officially strip this immunity from Facebook, Twitter, and Google, arguing that the big tech companies have engaged in political censorship of conservatives.
