Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan dares Facebook to discuss her claims of COVID-19 being lab manufactured
Chinese virologist in conversation with WION
Facebook recently flagged one of WION’s interviews with Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan as “fake news”. She had claimed that the coronavirus was manufactured in a lab.
Her study has been widely discredited by the scientific community, but WION provided Dr Li-Meng Yan a platform to explain her claims. After Facebook flagged it as "fake news", WION raised this issue with a fact-checking agency that “fact checks” for the social media giant.
Two days on, there have been two developments:
First, the news of Facebook censoring WION was widely circulated on social media. It also reached Dr Li-Meng Yan.
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She put out this response. “Since when could Facebook judge the validity of scientific evidence”, she asked on Twitter
Dr Li wrote further - “Dare anyone represent Facebook to discuss with me point-to-point in a live broadcast, based on two reports on the lan-origin of COVID-19 by CCP regime?"
Facebook has not responded to the virologist's challenge. But it has lifted the curbs on WION.
Secondly, after branding our interview with the Chinese virologist as “fake news”, it has now rated it as “partly false”.
The fact-checking agency says our interview contains “baseless information regarding the coronavirus' origin”.
How does Facebook get to decide which information is baseless and which isn't?
Even experts are debating the origin of COVID-19, and a social media company based out of California is taking the calls on what's right and what isn’t.
Why does Facebook get to play the arbiter of truth?
If Facebook is so interested in digging information on the origin of the coronavirus, it can begin by taking up Dr Li-Meng Yan's challenge on a live debate on her report.