Facebook continues its sanctions against disinformation. The American company announced, Saturday March 27, to have “Blocked” for 30 days the account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after the “Repeated violations” by the latter of the firm’s policy regarding false information related to Covid-19.
“Due to repeated violations of our regulations, we have blocked the page for 30 days during which it will only be in read mode”, a spokesperson told AFP. Mr. Maduro’s account remains open and visible but he will no longer be able to make any posts or comments for a month.
“We have removed a video from Mr. Maduro’s page” in which the socialist president praised the drug Carvativir, the effectiveness of which has not yet been demonstrated by medical studies, specifies Facebook.
Previous warnings
Facebook had previously warned administrators of Mr. Maduro’s account that he had broken the rules. In February, Mr. Maduro had also criticized the social network, denouncing the “Censorship” by Facebook of a video evoking Carvativir: “They (Facebook) say that until the WHO (World Health Organization) has validated, I can’t talk about Carvativir. Who is ruling Venezuela? Who runs the world? The owner of Facebook? “.
Facebook ensures to tackle “Publications which contain misleading, untruthful or unfounded health-related claims, and in particular those which assure that a product can offer 100% prevention or immunity or can cure the virus”.
The company’s automatic systems have removed more than 12 million misleading content about Covid-19 or vaccines since the start of the pandemic, according to Facebook.
Venezuela (33 million inhabitants) has so far recorded around 150,000 declared cases of Covid contamination and 1,500 deaths, according to official figures, disputed by the opposition. The authorities are now worried about the recent increase in the number of new cases and in particular the appearance of the Brazilian strain of the virus.
Venezuela launched a vaccination campaign against Covid in February with the Russian Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines and must also receive 60,000 doses of Cuban vaccines. However, it was decided not to authorize the AstraZeneca vaccine due to possible side effects.
