Facebook took down a MAJOR COVID-19 disinformation campaign tied to China and promoted by government officials

Facebook announced that it took down a major disinformation campaign tied to China that sought to discredit investigations in the origin of COVID-19:

The disinformation campaign revolved around a post made by a Swiss biologist that did not actually exist, and involved Chinese government officials. https://t.co/aqTeJ0DwSi

— VICE (@VICE) December 2, 2021

From Vice:

On July 24 of this year, a Facebook user who claimed to be a Swiss biologist called Wilson Edwards wrote a post criticizing the US government for allegedly intimidating the World Health Organization to keep investigating the origins of COVID-19 in China.

“WHO sources and a number of fellow researchers complained that they had endured enormous pressure and even intimidation from the U.S. side,” Edwards wrote in the post, according to a screenshot provided by Facebook. “The WHO sources told me that the U.S. is so obsessed with attacking China on the origin-tracing issue that it is reluctant to open its eyes to the data and findings.”

According to the article, this was a coordinated disinformation campaign that “used more than 500 fake accounts, 20 pages, four groups, and 86 Instagram accounts”:

The coordinated COVID-19 disinformation campaign used more than 500 fake accounts, 20 pages, four groups, and 86 Instagram accounts. https://t.co/kCHJePiKBa

— VICE (@VICE) December 1, 2021

Chinese government officials then engaged with and promoted the bogus accounts:

NEW: Facebook took down a disinformation campaign involving a fake Swiss biologist, which was spread by more than 500 fake accounts.

Chinese government officials engaged with the fake post even before the fake accounts did, according to Facebook.https://t.co/DvY1mkGs9W

— Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb) December 1, 2021

Recommended

Pam Bondi Tells Sen. Alex Padilla She Will Not Be Bullied by Him

Brett T.

Advertisement

An official at Facebook said, “This is the first time we’ve seen an operation that included a coordinated cluster of state employees amplifying itself in this way”:

“This is the first time we've seen an operation that included a coordinated cluster of state employees amplifying itself in this way,” Facebook’s information operations threat intelligence lead said.https://t.co/W2zVGzqZnl

— China Research Group (@ChinaResearchGp) December 2, 2021

Weird. Why is China so desperate to prevent investigations into the origin of COVID-19? We may never know. . .

***