The YouTube video platform on Monday, October 25, suspended the activities of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's channel for a week, after removing a video in which he mentioned false information associating the coronavirus vaccine with AIDS.

Social networks Facebook and Instagram, which belong to the same group, also deleted it.

In his weekly live video last Thursday, posted simultaneously across multiple platforms, Jair Bolsonaro mentioned a rumor that official UK government reports "suggest" that fully vaccinated people are developing the AIDS virus "much faster than expected."

"I recommend that you read the news. I will not read it here because I could have problems with my live," added the head of state.

This information was denied by the British government to the AFP fact-checking service.

The Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, for its part, assured Saturday in a statement that "no relationship is known between any vaccine against Covid-19 and the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" (AIDS).

Youtube restricts its publication

Youtube decided to remove the video "for violating our medical disinformation policies on Covid-19 by claiming that vaccines do not reduce the risk of contracting the disease and that they cause other infectious diseases".

This is the second time that the president has violated the platform's "community standards".

YouTube sent a first alert in July, when it removed from its channel other videos containing false information about the pandemic, in which the effectiveness of the mask in preventing infections was questioned, and the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin encouraged, while these drugs have not been recognized as effective.

This time, he won't be able to post any new videos or do live broadcasts for the next seven days, according to the platform's rules.

The rest of his videos on the channel, where he has 3.5 million subscribers, are still available on YouTube.

First weekly live assigned

The video of the weekly live of last Thursday of the Brazilian president was no longer available Sunday evening on Facebook, nor on Instagram, another social network of the same group.

"Our policy does not allow (the publication of) claims that anti-Covid vaccines cause death or serious health problems," a Facebook spokesperson explained.

Facebook had already withdrawn in March a video in which Jair Bolsonaro, criticizing preventive measures and anti-Covid vaccines, encouraged the gatherings, at a time when some 2,500 people were dying every day from the coronavirus in Brazil. 

But this is the first time that one of its weekly Thursday direct has been affected by such a measure.

Controversial statements

The far-right president has made many controversial statements about vaccines, going so far as to say last year that Pfizer's could "turn (people) into crocodiles."

The head of state has long said that he would be "the last Brazilian" to be immunized, before recently announcing that he had completely given up on being vaccinated.

A Senate parliamentary commission of inquiry last week asked for the indictment of Jair Bolsonaro for his policy deemed "irresponsible" during the health crisis, incriminating him in particular for delays in the acquisition of vaccines and the dissemination of false pandemic information.

With AFP

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