Nicolas Maduro has been promoting a suspicious home-grown COVID-19 cure.
After overseeing the political and economic collapse of his country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has had his Facebook account frozen – for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. He has become the second world leader to have his social-media rights revoked this year, after the much-publicized Twitter and Facebook bans of President Donald Trump.
Since January Maduro has been promoting Carvativir, a Venezuelan-made liquid that he claims can cure COVID-19. Since Carvativir, which appears to be mostly herbal, has not been verified to help remedy the coronavirus, Maduro’s spruiking was classified by Facebook as misinformation.
“We removed a video posted to President Nicolas Maduro’s Page for violating our policies against misinformation about COVID-19 that is likely to put people at risk for harm,” a Facebook spokesperson said to CNET. “We follow guidance from the WHO 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.”
Venezuela’s Ministry of Information fired back, condemning Facebook for targeting information it claims helps fight the coronavirus. “We are witnessing a digital totalitarianism exercised by supranational companies who want to impose their law on the countries of the world,” Venezuela’s Ministry of Information said in a statement to Reuters.
