After Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Republican Senator Tom Cotton and other high profile sources said Wuhan coronavirus could have come from a laboratory in China back in spring 2020, the leftist media sprung into action to censor their comments.
So-called "fact checkers" have rated stories about the lab leak theory, including stories simply quoting Pompeo and Cotton, false or mostly false. Facebook, through the use of third-party advocacy groups posing as fact checkers, limited or removed millions of posts they deemed "misleading" about the virus, including its origins.
Since the start of the pandemic, until April 2021, more than 18 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram have been removed for violating the platforms’ policies on COVID-19-related misinformation.
The company says it has labeled more than 167 million pieces of COVID-19 content in total, and are making accounts that discourage vaccines more difficult to find as part of its efforts.
Has @PolitiFact apologized loudly and widely for calling the lab leak theory a total lie?
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 30, 2021
It’s clear the fact checkers are partisans working for the ruling party.
Now just one week ago, Facebook announced they would no longer remove posts linking Wuhan coronavirus to a lab leak.
Facebook will no longer take down posts claiming that Covid-19 was man-made or manufactured, a company spokesperson told POLITICO on Wednesday, a move that acknowledges the renewed debate about the virus’ origins.
Facebook’s policy tweak arrives as support surges in Washington for a fuller investigation into the origins of Covid-19 after the Wall Street Journal reported that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in late 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus. The findings have reinvigorated the debate about the so-called Wuhan lab-leak theory, once dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory.
Also, the lab leak theory didn’t change. It didn’t suddenly become credible. It didn’t jump from crazy to reasonable. The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) May 29, 2021
All these reporters scrambling to defend their own records on the lab leak theory are exposing their own hypocrisy & ignoring their basic error. Just report the facts. Don’t act like its your job to tell us whats ok to think or talk about. Own up to it when you fail your readers.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) May 29, 2021
Despite efforts by media, big tech and "fact checkers" to protect the Chinese Communist Party by removing information about a lab leak from a number of platforms, a strong majority of Americans still believe Wuhan coronavirus came from a lab.
Facebook has removed 18 million "misleading posts" about COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and labeled more than 167 million others.
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) May 31, 2021
How's that working out in impacting voter opinion?
68% think the virus came from the Chinese lab.
Story - https://t.co/rpMo1qrhYa pic.twitter.com/IcQtY25Uqr