Facebook Stops Removing Posts Claiming COVID-19 Man-Made After Lab-Leak Hypothesis Finally Goes Mainstream
After nearly 18 months of punishing anyone who suggested that COVID-19 might have originated in a Wuhan lab, Facebook has decided to stop removing posts which claim the virus was man-made or manufactured, a company spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday.
The move comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that three lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in late 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus - building on previous reporting by the Washington Post's Josh Rogin. Both articles cast doubt on the mainstream media's unsupported claim that COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans through an intermediary species - as opposed to the far more plausible theory that the virus escaped from a lab known for manipulating bat coronaviruses to better infect humans, in the same town which became ground zero for the pandemic. As we noted last week, there were very obvious clues to anyone able to think for themselves.
As the mainstream media parroted CCP talking points throughout 2020 and punished anyone who strayed from the official narrative, Facebook banned Zero Hedge articles and policed COVID 'disinformation' based on the word of so-called "fact checkers" who insisted that the new disease could only have emerged via yet-to-be discovered animal intermediaries.
Of course, one of Facebook's "fact checkers" also worked at the Wuhan lab, and was defending her former colleagues in a giant undisclosed conflict of interest.
Former Wuhan lab worker and Facebook fact checker, Danielle Anderson, who collaborated nine times with bat-covid researcher, Peng Zhou
Let’s say it clearly: the mainstream are our Cranks.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) May 18, 2021
Those who said all those entertaining Wuhan Laboratory Lab Leak hypotheses were a pro-Trump anti-Asian hate campaign were peddling conspiracy theory.
Did you speak out against our real conspiracy theorists? Check your dates: https://t.co/uw9kvyIq3h
Meanwhile, Politifact was caught quietly editing an article 'debunking' the lab-leak hypothesis.
I never want to hear about Politifact. Ever. Never. Ever. I’m going to use these two screencaps if anyone ever cites that source. pic.twitter.com/5EPgpxEgiW
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) May 19, 2021
VOX was similarly caught stealth-editing an article "debunking" the lab origin.
Some of the stealth edits that Vox made to its article debunking "conspiracy theories" that Covid-19 originated in a lab leak between its original publication in March 2020 and now. pic.twitter.com/RYxZ2B81mc
— Paul Graham (@paulg) May 24, 2021
No apologies. No introspection. Just spineless stealth edits and quiet policy changes such as Facebook's recent decision. Perhaps most disturbing is the complete rejection of the lab-leak hypothesis by the MSM, social media giants, and liberal leaders because President Trump promoted it.
What's more, last night we learned from CNN that President Biden canceled aTrump-era State Department investigation into the origins of COVID-19, which also sought to determine whether China's biological weapons program may have played a role in the pandemic. According to the report, it was met with internal opposition from officials who thought it was simply a politicized witch hunt to blame China for the virus.
After news broke of Biden's pro-China decree to cancel the investigation, his administration scrambled to do damage control, announcing that US intelligence agencies have 90 days to "redouble" their efforts to find out the virus' origin and report back.
Facebook flip-flop
As Politico notes, "Facebook announced in February it had expanded the list of misleading health claims that it would remove from its platforms to include those asserting that "COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured." The tech giant has updated its policies against false and misleading coronavirus information, including its running list of debunked claims, over the course of the pandemic in consultation with global health officials."
Now, according to a spokesperson, the origin language has been stricken from that list due to the renewed debate.
"In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps," said the spokesperson in an email. "We’re continuing to work with health experts to keep pace with the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge."
Now maybe they can unblock ZeroHedge posts and realize they have no place as the arbiters of anything.
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