Twitter temporarily limited the account of Donald Trump Jr. After the President’s son retweeted a video alleging a conspiracy to suppress the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
Trump Jr.’s previous tweets were still visible on the Twitter website. But Republican strategist Andrew Surabian tweeted a picture of Trump Jr.’s account as suspended. “We’ve temporarily limited some of your account features,” the suspension notice said, noting that Trump Jr. Had violated “the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”
Twitter spokesman Nick Pacilio explained that Trump Jr.’s account would have “limited functionality” for 12 hours. “This account has not been permanently suspended,” he wrote in a tweet. “Per the screenshot, the Tweet requires deletion because it violates our rules (sharing misinformation on COVID-19).”
Coins2Day reached out to Twitter directly for comment and will update this story if a response is received.
The limitation of Trump Jr.’s account comes as the President and his allies have increasingly used social media to spread misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier this week, Facebook took down a misleading video about COVID-19 only to have President Trump tweet clips from the same video. Twitter deleted several of Trump’s tweets.
The latest move by Twitter also comes just before the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook are scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday, with Republican representatives expected to bring up the issue of alleged anti-conservative bias in social media.
Update: This story was updated on July 28 with Twitter’s confirmation of the limiting of the account.