Facebook has suspended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maduro’s suspension is for 30 days.
According to Reuters, Maduro has been touting Carvativir as a “miracle” remedy. He insisted the liquid would cure the coronavirus but that the medical community has not supported those claims.
A Facebook spokesperson said, “We removed a video posted to President Nicolás Maduro’s page for violating our policies against misinformation about Covid-19 that is likely to put people at risk for harm. We follow guidance from the World Health Organization that says there is currently no medication to cure the virus. Due to repeated violations of our rules, we are also freezing the page for 30 days, during which it will be read-only.”
Maduro lauded the “miracle drops” in a national address last month. “From Venezuela to the world,” he declared while flaunting two vials of Carvativir.
In February, he told the nation: “Ten drops under the tongue every four hours and the miracle is done. It’s a powerful antiviral, very powerful, that neutralizes the coronavirus.
“It has gone through a period of nine months of study, experimentation, clinical application. On the sick, on the very sick, on people who have been intubated, and we recovered them,” Maduro said.
The medical world is not happy.
David Boulware, professor of medicine and an infectious diseases physician at the University of Minnesota Medical School, emphasized the lack of scientific evidence during an interview with The Associated Press. “This is, just as with other things, people trying to sell, you know, some magic beans as the solution to a complex problem. This would be great if it worked, but I would like to see the data.”
Venezuela’s Ministry of Information denounced Facebook’s decision to Reuters, “We are witnessing a digital totalitarianism exercised by supranational companies that want to impose their law on the countries of the world.”
Social media platforms have been cracking down on the spread of misinformation. Former president Donald Trump was permanently banned from several major platforms for spreading false information regarding election fraud as well as the pandemic.
