Tipsheet

The Number of Times the Lab Leak Theory Was 'Fact Checked' Is Astonishing

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.

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.

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.