Facebook won't ban lab coronavirus ‘conspiracy’ theories

US-based social media giant Facebook has reversed its policy banning posts suggesting the coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in China. 

Facebook’s controversial policy change came on Thursday amid a push by the administration of US President Joe Biden over the origins of the virus, raising fresh questions about social media's role in policing misinformation, according to AFP. 

The world's largest social network refused to root out false and potentially harmful content after Biden ordered US intelligence agencies ordered to find out whether the virus originated in a Wuhan lab in China. 

Biden said that top US health officials were investigating whether the virus could have occurred naturally or came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan. Biden's order signals an escalation in mounting controversy over the origins of the virus.

"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 or manufactured from our apps," the Facebook statement said.

"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," it added. 

The reversal may be "another exhibit for the possibility that there will be a swing back against the more heavy-handed moderation as more comes out about what ppl got wrong and where contestation was important," tweeted Evelyn Douek, a Harvard University lecturer and researcher of online speech regulation.

The Chinese government said on Thursday that Biden is playing politics by calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

Biden "does not care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Thursday, The Associated Press reported.  

The spokesperson also urged the Biden administration to be more transparent about how the virus spread in the United States. 

The development came after the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was again highlighted by US authorities and media outlets in an apparent bid to wage yet another probe into the origins of the deadly virus following the WHO mission to the Chinese city.

The so-called "lab leak" theory was first promoted by former US President Donald Trump and others. 

"Wow! But they did suppress the story for a year, defaming Trump and Republicans for a 'conspiracy theory' blacklisting conservative press and banning us," tweeted Kelly Sadler, a blogger and former Trump aide.

Biden gives intel agencies 90 days to pinpoint COVID origins as lab leak theory debated

Joe Biden tasks US intelligence community with reporting on COVID-19 origins, within 90 days.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed the US for “spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation”.  

Zhao described the US-led revival of the theory as "disrespectful" to the WHO investigation, insisting that the move amounted to "undermining of global solidarity to fight the virus."

Calling on Washington to open its own virology facilities to scrutiny, the Chinese official then emphasized, "If the US really wants full transparency then it should, like China did, invite WHO experts to visit the US and investigate."
 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk