Facebook chief defends blocking Hydroxychloroquine videos

In the wake of Twitter's suspending the account of Donald Trump Jr. for posting a video of doctors claiming that hydroxychloroquine was a cure for the Coronavirus, the head of Facebook told Congress on Wednesday that he had no qualms about blocking those sorts of videos on his social media platform as well.

"Stating that there's a proven cure for COVID - when there is in fact none - might encourage somebody to take something which could have adverse effects," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"So we do take that down," Zuckerberg told a House panel, treading on a malaria drug which President Donald Trump has repeatedly championed as a way to treat the Coronavirus.

“It has not been proven to cure COVID,” Zuckerberg told Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). “Some of the data suggests that it might be harmful to people.”

The exchange came several hours after President Trump again spoke up for a group of doctors, led by one doctor from Texas, who championed the use of hydroxchloroquine.

“I was very impressed with her and other doctors that stood with her. I think she made sense, but I know nothing about her,” the President said, not mentioning some of her out of the ordinary beliefs centering on aliens and sex.

“And with hydroxy, all I want to do is save lives,” the President told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “I don’t care if it’s hydroxy or anything else. All I want to do is save lives.”

But a number of health experts - and the Food and Drug Administration - do not see hydroxychloroquine as a reliable therapeutice for the Coronavirus, despite the President’s repeated endorsements.

States are also refusing to listen to the President’s call about hydroxychloroquine, as on Thursday the state of Ohio will ban the sale or dispensing of the drug as a way to deal with the Coronavirus.