Facebook slammed for censoring posts that say coronavirus was man-made in China
Story on the Washington Examiner website here: Facebook slammed for censoring posts that say coronavirus was man-made in China
Facebook was slammed by critics for suppressing information after the social media giant announced it would lift a ban on posts claiming COVID-19 was man-made.
The social networking site made the move on Wednesday after President Joe Biden said his intelligence community was reviewing the origins of the virus.
Biden's move comes as the so-called Wuhan lab leak hypothesis, that the virus was created in the Wuhan Institute of Virology before somehow escaping, burst back into the mainstream.
Until yesterday, Facebook had branded content about the virus being man-made and escaping from a lab as "misinformation" or debunked claims that called for "aggressive action" from the platform's moderators.
"The arrogance of Facebook to decide where and how precisely covid originated, and who should be able to talk about it, is stunning. But sadly typical," Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and staunch critic of Big Tech, said on Twitter.
Critics pointed to Facebook's flip-flopping regarding the virus's origins as a reason to change the website's content moderation rules internally and for external pressure to be put on the site through lawsuits.
“We now have proof that Facebook's fact-checker program actively suppressed valid debate about the origins of COVID and instead promoted Chinese propaganda," conservative activist Brent Bozell from the Media Research Center told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
"Facebook, which claims to be fighting 'misinformation' essentially admitted today that THEY have been spreading misinformation for over a year. Yet another reason to remove the protections Facebook and others receive from section 230," Bozell said.
There is bipartisan consensus to overhaul Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act of 1996, the controversial law that gives online platforms legal immunity for third-party content.
Facebook says that it is changing its content moderation rules regarding the coronavirus origins because of new investigations into the issue.
"In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove claims that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps," Facebook said Wednesday.
The controversy around censorship regarding the origins of the virus started last year when former President Donald Trump blamed Beijing for the pandemic, calling it the "China virus" or "Kung Flu," and some Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton suggested there was evidence the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the pandemic in late 2019. Cotton and others who espoused such theories were criticized at the time.
Now, many Democrats, liberal activists, as well as scientists, like Biden's top epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, seem open to the possibility that the virus escaped from a lab in China and that it is not a conspiracy theory from conservatives.
Two weeks ago, a group of 18 well-respected scientists asked for a full investigation into the events that led to the coronavirus pandemic, including the possibility that a laboratory perhaps accidentally released it into society.
China, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied that the coronavirus escaped from one of its labs and accused the United States of making up the leak theory in order to hurt China through a "smear campaign," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. wrote in a statement on Thursday.
China's foreign ministry on Sunday cited a controversial World Health Organization-led report on the virus's origins that said that a lab leak was extremely unlikely, but U.S. intelligence and officials have cast doubt on the accuracy and independence of the report.
The Chinese Communist Party has even pushed baseless claims last month about the coronavirus originating with the U.S. military, rather than starting in China, and on Thursday placed blame for the virus on U.S. labs in Asia and at Fort Detrick in Maryland, without any evidence.
Biden has instructed his intelligence officials to report back in 90 days regarding any findings they gather on the origins of the virus.
Facebook claims that its content moderation rules over the past year that dictate what posts get removed have been based on guidance from respected global health organizations and local health authorities regarding what could cause harm to the public.
“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,” Facebook said in its statement Wednesday.