YouTube suspends Bolsonaro’s channel due to false news about vaccine against COVID-19 and AIDS

The video platform YouTube suspended this Monday for a week the activities of the Brazilian president’s channel, Jair Bolsonaro, after removing a video in which he mentioned false information that associates the vaccine against the COVID-19 with AIDS.

“We removed a video from Jair Bolsonaro’s channel for violating our medical disinformation policies on COVID-19 by contracting the disease and causing other infectious diseases ”, reported YouTube in a statement sent to AFP.

It is the second time that the president violates those of the platform, so this time he will not be able to publish new videos or make live broadcasts for the next seven days, according to the rules of the service.

The rest of his videos on the channel, where he has 3.5 million subscribers, are still accessible on YouTube.

According to the same rules, a new violation in the next three months and, if you commit another violation, they can permanently remove the channel.

In his weekly live broadcast on Thursday, published simultaneously on several platforms, Bolsonaro mentioned false information circulating on social networks associating

The president referred to the message according to which there are official reports from the UK government that “suggest” that those who are fully vaccinated are developing the AIDS disease “much faster than expected.”

“I recommend that you read the News. I’m not going to read it here because I may have problems with my ‘live’ ”, said Bolsonaro.

Denial

The information was denied by the British government at the AFP fact-checking service.

The Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases clarified on Saturday in a statement that “There is no known relationship between any vaccine against COVID-19 and the development of

AFP asked the president’s press office for a reaction, but did not get an immediate response. The president did not refer to the blocking of YouTube or his other social networks.

, who belong to the same group, had already deleted the video for the same reason.

“Our policies do not allow claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or cause serious harm to people”a company spokesman said Monday. Scientific studies have so far shown that coronavirus vaccines are safe.

Facebook had already withdrawn in March a video in which Bolsonaro, critical of preventive measures and anticovid vaccines, encouraged crowds, at a time when in Brazil some 2,500 people died daily from coronavirus.

YouTube sent a first alert in July, when, in which, in which the effectiveness of the mask to prevent infections was questioned and the use of contraindicated drugs to treat cases of covid, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, was defended.

The president is often accused of spreading false news. In August, the Federal Supreme Court decided to investigate him for crimes of “slander” and “incitement to crime”, among other causes related to his challenges without evidence of the electronic voting system in Brazil.

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