Promotion Of 'Miraculous' COVID-19 Drugs, Facebook Bans The Account Of The Venezuelan President

JAKARTA - Facebook froze the account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for 30 days. Because Maduro often posts false information about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Facebook explained that the account suspension was carried out because Maduro continued to violate Facebook policies regarding COVID-19 disinformation. Most recently, Maduro posted a thyme-based drug, Carvativir, which he claims can cure COVID-19.

"We are following directions from the WHO (World Health Organization) which says there is currently no cure for the virus. Apart from taking down the video we also freeze Maduro's account for the next 30 days and he can only read from his account", wrote a Facebook statement on Monday, March 29th.

In his video post, Maduro falsely claims that Carvativir is the same as "magic drops" and can be used to prevent and treat COVID-19 without side effects.

Last year, Facebook removed a video of Brazilian President Bolsonaro claiming that the drug hydroxychloroquine was actually effective in treating the virus. Facebook did the same by deleting Donald Trump's post claiming CCOVID-19 was "less deadly" than the flu.

A Facebook spokesman said it was only adhering to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, which showed the claim was misleading because there was no scientific evidence of a cure for the disease using the drugs mentioned.

Some have considered Facebook's move to be a strong rebuke for the head of state to be responsible for the spread of misinformation about COVID-19. This includes uploading information on the social media platform.