Trump’s virus retweets spark claims of censorship

The feud between conservatives and social media companies over alleged censorship escalated Tuesday after President Donald Trump and his son shared a fresh dose of misinformation about a disproven drug for treating the coronavirus in videos that were quickly taken down by Twitter and Facebook.

The president, in a marked shift from the more measured approach he’s taken toward the virus in recent days, also used his tweets to amplify criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

Tuesday’s feud focused mostly on hydroxychloroquine, a drug long approved to treat malaria that Trump has vigorously advocated as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Scientific studies have shown the drug can do more harm than good when used to treat symptoms of COVID-19, but doctors who believe otherwise argued for its use at an event Monday in Washington, citing their own experiences treating patients with the drug. The news conference and ensuing viral video was organized by Tea Party Patriots Action, a dark money group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.

Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and others shared video of the event on Facebook and Twitter, prompting both companies to step in and remove the content as part of an aggressive push to keep the sites free of potentially harmful information about the virus — though not before more than 17 million people had seen one version of the video circulating on the web.

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