Google has canceled a live broadcast on YouTube of the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro , on outside channels, claiming that his account is suspended for a week for spreading inaccurate information about the coronavirus.
Specifically, Bolsonaro appeared on his son Carlos Bolsonaro’s channel and on a Jovem Pan television program, but the company has banned the publication of “content from creators that are subject to some restriction.” “President Jair Bolsonaro’s channel continues to be temporarily suspended, so it cannot send videos with new content or make live broadcasts in accordance with our policy of alerts and notices,” the company explained in a note.
Last week YouTube suspended Bolsonaro’s channel for misinformation in a broadcast in which he links the use of vaccines against COVID-19 with the development of AIDS. In addition, the suspension was accompanied by a warning so that if in 90 days its rules were breached again, the punishment would be two weeks without being able to publish. If the third announcement is reached in the same period of time, the channel will be permanently deleted.
The suspension came into effect on Monday night and the reason is to violate the rules of the platform with “medical misinformation about COVID-19 by stating that vaccines do not reduce the risk of contracting the disease and that they cause other infectious diseases.”
YouTube had already sent a notice to Bolsonaro in July for violating its rules, although then the direct suspension was not reached, as has been done now.
The suspension of the president’s YouTube account came after Facebook withdrew the same direct last Sunday. “Our policies do not allow alleging that vaccines against the coronavirus kill or can cause serious harm to people,” said the social network to justify its decision to delete the video from Facebook and Instagram.
The content in question is a direct that President Bolsonaro issued last Thursday, his weekly appearance on social networks, and in which he assured that those vaccinated against the coronavirus “are developing the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”, an association that the authorities Doctors have already called it false and absurd.
This is the second video that Facebook withdraws from Bolsonaro, after a recording from March 2020 in which the Brazilian president promoted the use of chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, to preventively treat the coronavirus, despite the fact that Science has shown not only that it is ineffective, but that it could also backfire in some cases.
The suspension of Bolsonaro’s channel on YouTube is reminiscent of the indefinite blocking of the account of former United States President Donald Trump , who was thus sanctioned by the platform a few days after his supporters stormed the United States Capitol.
