Trump declares he is 'immune' to COVID-19, Twitter flags and limits sharing of president's tweet

Twitter has once again flagged one of President Donald Trump's tweets. The tech giant's latest censoring of the president's account involves a post where Trump declared that he is "immune" to COVID-19.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: "A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can't get it (immune), and can't give it. Very nice to know!"

Twitter flagged the president's tweet, claiming that it violated the company's rules "about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19." The post was not deleted after the social media platform deemed that while the communication broke Twitter's rules, the tweet may be in the public's interest to remain accessible.

The president's tweet was accessible; however, Twitter limited how users could interact with the social media post. Attempts to reply to the president's immunity tweet result in a pop-up window that says Twitter "disabled most of the ways" a user can engage with the post as a way to stop the tweet from "reaching more people."

Twitter also disabled users from retweeting Trump's tweet or giving it a "Like." The only engagement of the president's tweet that is permitted is to "quote tweet" the post.

On August 3, CDC said people could continue to test positive for up to three months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others. Then the CDC issued another press release on Aug. 14 that provided clarification. "Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection," the CDC stated.

On Friday, Trump gave an interview to Dr. Marc Siegel, a medical contributor to Fox News, where the president said that he was at "the bottom of the scale or free" of coronavirus.

On Saturday, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley issued a memo and declared that Trump meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for "safe discontinuation of isolation," and by current "recognized standards" he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others.

On Sunday during an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump said, "It seems like I'm immune, so I can go way out of a basement, which I would have done anyway."

Trump resumed his campaign events on Saturday with a White House South Lawn event that was coordinated with Candace Owens' Blexit organization, which encourages minorities to not blindly and automatically vote for Democrats. Trump is scheduled to appear at a reelection rally on Monday in Sanford, Florida.

This isn't the first time that Twitter has censored Trump's account.

In May, Twitter flagged a Trump tweet for "glorifying violence." The post read: "...These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let it happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

In June, Twitter blocked a Trump tweet that said: "There will never be an 'Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!" Twitter's explanation for censoring the president is that the post violated the company's policy against abusive behavior, "specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group."

Also in June, Twitter removed a meme that the president posted because The New York Times filed a copyright complaint.

In July, Twitter removed one of Trump tweets over copyright complaints by the alternative rock band Linkin Park.

During a hearing on anti-Semitism in July, a Twitter representative defended the social media company's decision to flag tweets from Trump, while at the same time allowing tweets from Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that call for genocide.