New Delhi: A post by singer Madonna was deleted by Instagram Wednesday, in which the popstar shared a conspiracy theory about coronavirus.
Madonna, who has 15 million followers, shared a video of Stella Immanuel, a member of a group named America Frontline Doctors that has been spreading misinformation about the pandemic. In the video, Immanuel claimed that masks and shutdowns were not required to fight the pandemic and also that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was a cure for Covid-19.
HCQ has been proven to be ineffective in the treatment for coronavirus by several studies. The WHO has also clarified that the drug has no clinical benefits in treating Covid-19.
The 61-year-old singer captioned the video with a note claiming that a cure for Covid-19 had “been found and proven and has been available for months”.
“They would rather let fear control the people and let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” she added.
She further called Immanuel her “hero” and said that “some people don’t want to hear the truth”.
The social media site first blurred the video and said it had “false information,” and then it deleted the post.
According to Raki Wane, Instagram’s spokesperson, the video was taken down “for making false claims about cures and prevention methods for Covid-19.”
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Previous controversial posts
This is just the latest in a series of controversial posts that Madonna has posted in the past few months.
She began posting “quarantine diaries”, a series of short videos, from March onwards, reflecting on life under lockdown due to Covid-19.
In one such video, which was also deleted later, Madonna was sitting naked in a bathtub, wearing a necklace and bracelet in cream coloured liquid with rose petals and candles all over and said: “That’s the thing about Covid-19: It doesn’t care about how rich you are, how famous you are, how funny you are, how smart you are, where you live, how old you are, what amazing stories you can tell….it’s the great equalizer, and what’s terrible about it is what’s great about it. What’s terrible about it is it’s made us all equal in many ways.”
She also referenced her song Human Nature and added, “Like I used to say at the end of ‘Human Nature’ every night, we are all in the same boat and if the ship goes down, we’re all going down together.”
Several people condemned the post for its insensitivity. One user commented, on the now-deleted post, “If the ship is going down, do you really think we’re going down together while you’re in your bathtub having people working for you to be there? I love you, my queen. But things outside your mansion are very different from what you think. Stay safe and a be a little more empathic to the less privileged ones.”
In another video posted on 1 May, the pop icon said that she wanted to be released from bondage and said that she took a test and found out that she had antibodies, “So tomorrow, I’m just going to go for a long drive in a car, and I’m gonna roll down the window, and I’m gonna breathe in, I’m gonna breathe in the Covid-19 air.”
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