On Sunday, Twitter removed a tweet from top White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Scott Atlas after he falsely claimed that masks don’t work to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The tweet read, “Mask work? NO” then he proceeded to tweet several other posts that questioned whether face coverings stopped the spread of the coronavirus. He also gave examples of other areas where cases continued to rise even with mask mandates including Los Angeles, Miami, Hawaii, Alabama, France, the Philippines, UK, Spain, and Israel.
Twitter said in a statement that the doctor’s tweet, “was in violation of our COVID-19 Misleading Information Policy” that “prohibits sharing false or misleading content related to COVID-19 which could lead to harm.”
Atlas added to his tweet, “‘That means the right policy is @realDonaldTrump guideline: use masks for their intended purpose – when close to others, especially hi risk. Otherwise, social distance. No widespread mandates. #CommonSense.”
Twitter has had to remove or flag a series of posts by members of the Trump administration, including Donald Trump himself. They say their tweets are misleading and false when it comes to issues like Covid-19 and the upcoming presidential election.
Since the flagging and removal of tweets and other social media posts, social media sites have taken on a heightened degree of scrutiny from conservatives, especially after both Twitter and Facebook took actions to halt a New York Post article centered around Hunter Biden last week. GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate criticized the move as censorship and called on both companies to explain themselves in front of Congress.
In September, YouTube removed a video of Atlas for violating community standards where he questioned the need for universal social distancing measures.
Atlas, who is also in full support of the economy reopening, filmed an in-depth interview with the Hoover Institution where he discussed the possibility of allowing natural immunity to prevent the spread of the virus.
During an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Atlas lashed out at YouTube for “censoring science.”
He said, “It’s a disaster.” He added, “We’ve already seen the near obstruction of journalism. When you start censoring science you are removing fact, removing the basic way that we decide what is truth and what is not. This has been done I think historically in various countries and you know, we are sort of teetering on the edge of what is done in third world countries — the countries we used to be proudly distinguished from.”
Atlas has become one of the most controversial members of the White House coronavirus task force and has been frequently at odds with Dr. Anthony Fauci over a range of issues relating to the pandemic.
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