When reached by phone, a Twitter spokesperson spoke to the initial confusion about which account — real Donald Trump or Team Trump — had been temporarily banned from tweeting.
“That’s on me,” the spokesperson said. “I should have been more clear.”
When pressed as to whether the @realDonaldTrump account would have been likewise temporarily banned had it tweeted the same content as the @TeamTrump account, the spokesperson declined to answer.
UPDATE: Aug. 5, 2020, 6:07 p.m. PDT:
A Twitter spokesperson incorrectly confirmed via email that the account of @realDonaldTrump was temporarily banned from tweeting. Instead, as the Washington Post now reports, it was the account of the Trump team, Team Trump, that was temporarily banned.
We have reached out to Twitter for additional clarification.
Nick Pacilio, who works on Twitter’s communications team, confirmed the Post’s reporting.
The social media giant has blocked Donald Trump from tweeting. According to a spokesperson, the temporary ban will last until he deletes a tweet that contains coronavirus misinformation.
“The Tweet [showing a Fox News clip] you referenced is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation,” the spokesperson replied to our inquiry over email. “The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again.”
The tweet in question contains the following nonsense, spoken by the president: “If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely — but, almost immune from this disease.”
Children are not immune, almost or otherwise, to the coronavirus.
Earlier in the day, Facebook deleted a similar post by Trump.
Notably, Twitter temporarily suspended Donald Trump, Jr., in July for sharing coronavirus misinformation.
Originally published at Mashable