Instagram Flags Madonna Over Bogus Virus Video

Instagram blurs video about hydroxychloroquine for 'false information'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 29, 2020 8:54 AM CDT
Madonna Flagged for Sharing Same Video as Trumps
Honoree Madonna accepts the advocate for change award at the 30th annual GLAAD Media Awards at the New York Hilton Midtown on May 4, 2019.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Madonna shared a coronavirus conspiracy theory on Instagram on Tuesday, quickly leading her account to get flagged for spreading "false information." The video—the same one Twitter removed from the accounts of President Trump and his son, Donald Trump, Jr., per USA Today—showed Texas primary care physician Dr. Stella Immanuel, part of a group called America's Frontline Doctors, claiming hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19. Immanuel claimed to have treated 350 coronavirus patients with the malaria drug, reports the Guardian.

A cure is "proven and has been available for months" but "they would rather let fear control the people and let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer," Madonna wrote in the caption, per the Guardian. Instagram blurred the video and warned it contained "false information" as determined by "independent fact-checkers." Madonna later deleted it but not before a flurry of responses. "This is utter madness!!! I can't believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery," wrote Annie Lennox. "Hopefully your site has been hacked and you're just about to explain it." (Immanuel has also claimed alien DNA is used to make medicine.)

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