Why Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are taking down that hydroxychloroquine video and suspending accounts, including Donald Trump Jr., that shared it -…

Social media sites have come out swinging against a video pushing misleading information about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment which led to Twitter partially suspending Donald Trump Jr.s account.

Conservative media outlet Breitbart first published the contested clip, which features men and women dressed in white lab coats and referring to themselves as Americas Frontline Doctors staging a press conference outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The individuals make questionable coronavirus claims that have been proven false, such as calling hydroxychloroquine (a drug used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for decades) a cure for COVID despite a growing body of scientific evidence that has not shown this to be an effective treatment against the virus.

Whats more, one of the so-called doctors identified as Stella Immanuel from Houston claims in the video that you dont need masks, despite plenty of evidence showing that face coverings help slow the spread of the coronavirus. (She has also said that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments, and gynecological problems such as cysts are caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches, the Daily Beast reported.)

Facebook FB, -1.34%, Twitter TWTR, -0.46% and the Alphabet-owned GOOG, -2.00% GOOGL, -1.75% YouTube have been pulling down the video since it began going viral on Monday, but the damage was already done. By late Monday evening, NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny tweeted that the Breitbart clip had been viewed 20 million times on Facebook alone, and thats not including versions that have been shared among private accounts.

President Donald Trump even retweeted a few versions of the video on his Twitter account before they were taken down, undermining his own recent calls for Americans to wear masks to help prevent spreading COVID-19. His son Donald Trump Jr. also tweeted the video, which led Twitter to confirming on Tuesday that it was partially suspending his account for 12 hours, meaning he will be unable to send tweets, retweet posts, follow users, or like messages.The company cited its policy that requires the removal of content that may pose a risk to peoples health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.

Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists accusing the social media giants of censorship and buying into the bogus drug claims led the hashtag #hydroxychloroquineworks to become a top trending Twitter topic on Tuesday morning. Twitter refuted the hashtag somewhat by noting under the topic tab that the drug is not an effective treatment for COVID-19, according to the FDA.

Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration has revoked its emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which Dr. Anthony Fauci repeated on Good Morning America Tuesday morning. The director of the National Institute for Allergy andInfectious Diseases told George Stephanopoulos that, I go along with the FDA: the overwhelming prevailingclinical trials that have lookedat the efficacy ofhydroxychloroquine haveindicated that it is noteffective in coronavirusdisease.

Hydroxychloroquine was touted as a potential miracle drug early in the pandemic. The FDA issued emergency-use authorization for the malaria drug in March to treat COVID-19 patients, and clinicians across China, France and the U.S. began testing it to treat the novel coronavirus. Drug makers such as Bayer AG BAYRY, -0.92% and Novartis AG NVS, -0.70% donated millions of doses to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.

There was so much excitement, despite scant evidence that it was actually effective against COVID-19, that chloroquine shortages were reported as pharmacies and hospitals stockpiled excessive amounts of the drug something both the American Medical Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists strongly opposed in a joint statement.

Read more:Theres scant evidence so far for chloroquine as a COVID-19 drug but theres already a shortage

But reality hasnt lived up to the hype.

Three randomized clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine failed to prove or disprove a beneficial or a harmful effect on COVID-19. These include researchers from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who reported in the New England Journal of Medicine last month that the drug was no better than a placebo in preventing COVID-19 infections. A Spanish study of more than 2,300 people also found that the drug was not effective for early treatment of mild COVID-19. And the U.K. Recovery trial also ruled out any meaningful mortality benefit from using the drug.

Related:Heres the latest on what we know works and doesnt work in treating coronavirus infections

One by one, the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health dropped the drug from their clinical trials, and the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization. The general consensus in the scientific community is that the drug does not help COVID-19 patients.

Problem is, one study published in Lancet that claimed hydroxychloroquine put COVID-19 patients at a greater risk of death was later retracted, which has helped to fuel skepticism over whether any coronavirus research can be trusted. And false COVID-19 conspiracy theories have spread even as the virus itself has infected at least 16.5 million people and counting worldwide, killing 655,084. In fact, roughly one in three Americans doesnt believe that the coronavirus has killed as many people as has been reported, even as Texas and Arizona officials have requested refrigerated trucks as deceased coronavirus victims began overwhelming hospital morgues.

Read more: Hope dims for hydroxychloroquine even as medical study detailing the drugs failure is retracted

Further confusing the publics understanding of the coronavirus, President Trump has supported hydroxychloroquine time and time again, and even took the drug himself for a time to ward off the virus. Rep. Roger Marshall(R.-Ky.) has also touted taking the drug as a preventative measure against COVID-19.

The struggle to contain the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus is the latest struggle Big Tech is facing as Alphabet, Amazon AMZN, -1.67%, Apple AAPL, -1.52% and Facebookface questioning over their business practices on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

It also comes as the Trump administration moves forward in petitioning the Federal Communications Administration to reinterpret Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which says that websites cannot be punished for what other people publish on their sites. The petition complains that social media sites use Section 230 to unfairly censor conservative views.

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Why Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are taking down that hydroxychloroquine video and suspending accounts, including Donald Trump Jr., that shared it -...