Allum Bokhari
BreitbartMon, 27 Jul 2020 00:01 UTC
Facebook has removed a video posted by Breitbart News earlier today, which was the top-performing Facebook post in the world Monday afternoon, of a press conference in D.C. held by the group America's Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots. The press conference featured Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and frontline doctors sharing their views and opinions on coronavirus and the medical response to the pandemic. YouTube (which is owned by Google) and Twitter subsequently removed footage of the press conference as well.The video accumulated over 17 million views during the eight hours it was hosted on Facebook, with over 185,000 concurrent viewers.
The livestream had accumulated over 17 million views by the time of its censorship by Facebook.
In terms of viral velocity, the post was beating content from many other prominent accounts on Facebook today, including Hillary Clinton, Rev. Franklin Graham, and Kim Kardashian.
Over 185,000 viewers were concurrently watching the stream when it aired live Monday afternoon.The event, hosted by the organization America's Frontline Doctors, a group founded by Dr. Simone Gold, a board-certified physician and attorney, and made up of medical doctors, came together to address what the group calls a "massive disinformation campaign" about the coronavirus. Norman also spoke at the event."If Americans continue to let so-called experts and media personalities make their decisions, the great American experiment of a Constitutional Republic with Representative Democracy, will cease," reads the event's information page.The event was organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots.
"We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19," a Facebook company spokesman, Andy Stone, told Breitbart News.
The company did not specify what portion of the video it ruled to be "false information," who it consulted to make that ruling, and on what basis it was made.Stone replied to
New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose on Twitter regarding the video:
Stone then added that the platform would direct users who had interacted with the post to information on "myths debunked by the WHO."
Facebook's decision to censor the livestream was quickly followed by YouTube, the Google-owned video-sharing platform. The video had over 80,000 views on YouTube prior to its removal.Following Facebook and YouTube's removal of the video, Twitter followed suit, removing Breitbart News's Periscope livestream of the press conference.
Jack Dorsey's platform also then limited the Breitbart News official account, indicating that tweets containing links to multiple stories about the press conference violate the platform's COVID-19 policies.Twitter limits Breitbart News account
Comment: This level of censorship is truly without precedent. Taking down a press conference, unarguably a news event, hosted by a Republican Senator, of board certified doctors, and similarly taking down a communication by the President of the United States is both brash and dangerous. Big Tech has gone well beyond being too big for their britches.
UPDATE: The censorship continues.
From RT:
Trump Jr. locked out of Twitter account for sharing controversial video defending HCQ as Covid-19 cure
28 Jul, 2020 15:01
Donald Trump Jr has been given a "temporary lockout" from his Twitter account after violating the social media company's "misinformation policy" by sharing a video defending hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a Covid-19 "cure."
"This is a must watch!! So different from the narrative everyone is running with!" Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, originally wrote when sharing the video. The clip has been removed repeatedly from social media sites.
...
President Donald Trump tweeted the very same video - he has spoken of the antimalarial's benefits in the past, though studies have shown varying results - and the tweet was removed, but he appears to have not been suspended like his son was, as he has tweeted since then.
...
Twitter said through a spokesperson that this is not a "suspension," but instead a "temporary lockout." To end the "lockout," Trump Jr. must willingly delete the tweet himself. It has been replaced on his page with a message that simply reads: "this tweet is no longer available." The same message can be found on the president's Twitter page in place of his own tweet that shared the video.
The video itself was originally streamed by conservative news outlet Breitbart and featured doctors, proclaiming themselves to be 'America's Frontline Doctors,' talking about the benefits of HCQ and claiming masks are not needed to stop the spread of coronavirus. The credentials of some in the video have since come into question, and the video has been actively purged from social media pages for spreading "misinformation" about the current pandemic.
Trump Jr's Twitter lockout has only added fuel to the fire for people already accusing social media companies of bias against conservatives.
"If you don't think this is about CONTROL, YOU AREN'T PAYING ATTENTION," Blaze TV host Sara Gonzalez tweeted in reaction.
"Despicable,"wrote political pundit and strategist Bryan Dean Wright.
Last month, US Attorney General William Barr announced a broad antitrust investigation into big tech companies, including an examination of their online practices, with potential actions likely dropping before the summer is up.
Comment: This level of censorship is truly without precedent. Taking down a press conference, unarguably a news event, hosted by a Republican Senator, of board certified doctors, and similarly taking down a communication by the President of the United States is both brash and dangerous. Big Tech has gone well beyond being too big for their britches.
UPDATE: The censorship continues. From RT: