Hydroxychloroquine: Why a video promoted by Trump was pulled on social media (original) (raw)

The Facebook video, as well as racking up millions of views, was shared nearly 600,000 times before it was taken down.

The hashtag #hydroxychloroquine was tweeted more than 153,000 times, becoming one of Twitter's top trends in the US overnight.

Multiple versions of the video continue to be widely shared on social media.

According to data from the Facebook-owned social media analytics tool CrowdTangle, public posts in the last 24 hours containing the word hydroxychloroquine have had 6.6 million engagements (likes, shares, views, comments and reactions) on Facebook and Instagram despite the removal of several versions of the video.

In a statement to BBC News, Twitter said: "Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here."

"We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19," Facebook told the BBC, confirming it was also removing other versions of the video.

YouTube told the BBC: "We have removed the video for violating our Covid-19 misinformation policies."

BBC News also approached Breitbart, the White House and America's Frontline Doctors for comment.