Twitter on Wednesday placed a fact-check on two of the Chinese Communist Party Spokesman Lijian Zhao's tweets from March that stated the Wuhan coronavirus originated in the United States.
This article is very much important to each and every one of us. Please read and retweet it. COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US. https://t.co/LPanIo40MR
— Lijian Zhao ??? (@zlj517) March 13, 2020
2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3
— Lijian Zhao ??? (@zlj517) March 12, 2020
Twitter slapped @zlj517 with a fact-check. The CCP has continually lied and said the coronavirus started in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/NOJNGXXNo4
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) May 28, 2020
The social media giant was asked about whether or not they would fact-check Chinese officials and their disinformation campaign after a fact-check was placed on President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening. Trump's tweets claimed that absentee voting would lead to voter fraud, something Twitter disagreed with. Interestingly enough, the fact-checkers relied heavily on The Washington Post and CNN to hit back at Trump. They apparently missed the memo about the Department of Justice pressing charges against a rural mail carrier for changing absentee ballot registrations.
The New York Post pressed Twitter about holding China accountable for their role in spreading false information about the Wuhan coronavirus. Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley originally said the company had no plans to fact-check Zhao's blatantly false information. When asked what the rationale was for not providing the fact-check, Kelley said the company changed their mind.
"After further review, we’ve added labels to these two tweets," Kelley told The Post. "The tweets in question contain potentially misleading and harmful content about COVID-19 and have been labeled to provide additional context to the public. This enforcement decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month.”
This fact-check includes links to articles published by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, MSN and the CDC. The focus of those articles is that the coronavirus started in animals, not in labs in Wuhan.
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