It Took Hours for Facebook to Delete Trump’s False Claim That COVID Is Less Deadly Than the Flu

Facebook has deleted a message posted by President Donald Trump in which he falsely claimed COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu.

On Tuesday morning Trump posted the message to his Facebook page, which has 29.5 million followers, in an attempt to downplay the virus from which he is still trying to recover.

“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!!!,” Trump said.

Trump’s assertion that the seasonal flu is more deadly than coronavirus, which he has made since the pandemic began, is completely inaccurate. According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the seasonal flu hasn’t killed 100,000 people since 1967 and preliminary figures for the last three years are 22,000 (2019-2020) 34,000 (2018-2019) and 61,000 (2017-2018).

The post was viewed and shared by thousands of people before Facebook removed it. The company told VICE News the post was removed because it breaches the company’s policy on “incorrect information about the severity of COVID-19.”

This is not the first time Facebook has taken action against the president.

Back in August, the social network removed a video Trump posted of a Fox News interview in which he claimed children were “virtually immune” to COVID-19.

And in June, Facebook removed a Trump re-election campaign ad that featured a symbol used in Nazi Germany.

Trump posted an identical comment about the flu and coronavirus to Twitter, where he has 87 million followers. Moments after Facebook took action, Twitter labeled Trump’s tweet as misleading, but stopped short of deleting it.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19,” the label reads. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

Twitter’s action means the post can no longer be shared, liked or commented on.

The decisions by Facebook and Twitter to censor the president come just a week after a new study concluded that Trump was “the single largest driver of misinformation around COVID.”

The study by Cornell’s Alliance for Science, which analyzed more than 38 million articles published in English-language media between January and May, found that mentions of Trump made up nearly 38% of the conversation about misinformation.

Cover: President Donald Trump removes his mask as he stands on the balcony outside of the Blue Room as returns to the White House Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md. Trump announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)