Facebook has removed a video from Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe showing the conservative journalist questioning testers and Army National Guard personnel about their opinions about the Chinese virus.
The video showcased O’Keefe’s experience obtaining a coronavirus test, with a focus on the reports of official personnel at the testing site about the severity of the illness.
At one point in the video, an Army National Guardsman manning the testing site says that in his opinion, coronavirus is comparable to the flu.
“It’s the flu. It’s a cold,” said the soldier.
Another official at the testing center agreed that everyone she had seen come through the facility had been “not so bad.”
“I’ve seen people who get nothing more than a little cough,” said the official, who also added that “there are bad cases, I know that too.”
CNN correspondent Oliver Darcy, known for his role in the social media blacklisting of Alex Jones, reached out to several tech companies asking if O’Keefe’s video broke their terms of service. Twitter and YouTube said it did not, while Facebook said it did.
“Facebook spox says company is removing a [James O’Keefe] video posted today for violating its policies on COVID-19 misinfo,” said Darcy.
According to the CNN reporter, the Facebook spokesperson said “Equating COVID-19 with the common flu could cause people not to take the advice of medical professionals and thus contribute to the virus’ spread.”
On Instagram, O’Keefe condemned CNN for trying to get his video banned.
“This is OUTRAGEOUS,” wrote O’Keefe. “We reported the medical testers and Army personnel answers to Questions!”
“Instead of [CNN] reporters going out in field to illuminate, you CALL Facebook to TRY to get us banned. You’re not journalists. You’re not reporting. You’re participants in the system.”
Are you an insider at Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or any other tech company who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.
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