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
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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. . .
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