A view of Twitter logo on a mobile phone screen. On January 14, 2020, in Krakow, Poland. (Photo by ... [+]
Is the coronavirus outbreak really the result of engineered bioweapons research? Experts say no, but right-leaning financial blog ZeroHedge says yes. The experts are probably right, which is one of the reasons why Twitter banned the blog’s account permanently on Friday.
Last Wednesday, ZeroHedge’s founder posted an article under the pseudonym Tyler Durden entitled, “Is This The Man Behind The Global Coronavirus Pandemic?” that shared the name and personal information of a Chinese doctor and researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and linked him to the conspiracy theory.
A Twitter spokesperson said that ZeroHedge was removed for violating its platform manipulation policy, which the social media giant describes as “using Twitter to engage in bulk, aggressive or deceptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience.”
ZeroHedge called its permanent ban from Twitter “arbitrary and unjustified,” and published a screenshot of its ban notification from Twitter, showing that the platform banned the account for violating its abuse and harassment policy.
"We are confident that we did not violate any of the stated Twitter terms: We neither incited harassment nor did we 'dox' the public official, whose contact information is as of this moment listed on the Wuhan institute's website. As such, we find the suspension arbitrary and unjustified and potentially motivated by reasons other than the stated ones," ZeroHedge told FOX Business.
At the end of the post that also provides a photo and contact information of the Wuhan doctor is a call to action. It reads: “Something tells us, if anyone wants to find out what really caused the coronavirus pandemic that has infected thousands of people in China and around the globe, they should probably pay [the doctor] a visit.”
Targeted abuse and harassment aside, the blog is still publishing panic-inducing stories about the coronavirus, like one entitled: “'Corpses Taken Directly To Crematorium' - New Accounts Detail Grisly Operation At Wuhan's Fifth Hospital.”
The online hysteria surrounding the coronavirus turns into a feedback loop. The more people listen to conspiracy theories, the more they panic, the more credence it gives to other conspiracy theorists that claim the virus was created by the Trump administration to distract us from the impeachment trial, and so on.
The banning of ZeroHedge is one of the many steps Twitter and other social media platforms is taking to stop the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus. Twitter also recently introduced a feature that shows users “credible” information when they search for coronavirus-related tweets.
People, however, will always lean into the dramatics, as is evidenced by the fact that 2011 sci-fi thriller about a China-born virus “Contagion” is climbing in the iTunes rental charts amid fears of the coronavirus. But the world is not a movie, and incredibly dangerous viruses don’t just “get out” of labs, especially not labs like the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. The lab is a “Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4” facility, which means it has an incredibly high level of operational security. According to a Washington Post article debunking theories that the virus was created, or that it could have originated in the Wuhan lab, “Those entering the level 4 lab use airlocks and protective suits. Waste, and even air, is heavily filtered and cleaned before leaving the facility.”
The article also quoted Richard Ebright, professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, saying that there’s no indication that the coronavirus was engineered, based on the virus genome and properties.
“The root of conspiracy thinking lies in our ancient instinct to divide the social world into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ categories,” writes Jan-Willem van Prooijen, an associate professor in social and organisational psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Twitter can, and likely should, ban accounts that incite hysteria and spread false information. Unfortunately, it’s the result of platforms like Twitter that have allowed for the spread of conspiracy theories like this one.
Misinformation is the real virus, and tweets just one of the many vectors. The world of social media needs a better immune response, otherwise, we might see coronavirus conspiracy theorists going the way of the flat earth movement.
