‘Wuhan Crown Leak’ After Storm … Chinese Academician’s Twitter Account Blocked

Chinese-born virologist Dr. Yan Li Meng claims that the new coronavirus was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and the document released on the 14th (local time) is making a big difference.

Dr. Yan Li Meng, a virologist from China, who has published evidence documents claiming that the new coronavirus was artificially created in a laboratory in Wuhan. [ITV 캡처]

He published a supporting article written together with three fellow academics on the open information platform Zenodo. This document has so far registered 400,000 visits and 290,000 downloads worldwide.

However, on the 16th (local time), foreign media such as Newsweek and Tech Times reported that Twitter suspended Dr. Yan’s Twitter account. According to foreign media, Dr. Yan created a Twitter account on the 14th, and his Twitter account was suspended 48 hours after tweeting this newspaper. Two days after the account was created, his followers quickly grew to around 60,000.

The Twitter account opened by Dr. Yan Li Meng on the 14th. [트위터 캡처]

Twitter has been implementing a policy to report controversial tweets about the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) with a (information) tag from last May. Twitter said of the policy at the time, “although the risk of damage to the tweet is less severe, it is intended to provide additional clarification in cases where people are still confused or misleading.”

However, Twitter went one step further and suspended Dr. Yan’s account. However, the Twitter side did not specifically say what content in Dr. Yan’s tweet was the problem.

The document from Dr. Yan’s team read: “The new coronavirus is similar to the bat coronavirus found in research institutes related to the Chinese military from 2015 to 2017. I can do it.”

The Twitter account was suspended after Dr. Yen posted his thesis. [트위터 캡처]

Facebook and Instagram also posted a “ false information ” warning in the video of the interview with Dr. Yen, which was posted on the official account of Fox News’s “ Tucker Carlson Tonight ” signage program.

Dr. Yan said in a video interview with ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ on the 15th, “I have been deeply involved in secret research on the novel coronavirus since the early days of the pandemic.” He insisted. Additionally, the dispute is expected to continue to notify that “we will disclose additional evidence soon.”

As social media companies (SNS) block information related to Dr. Yan’s claims one after another, some netizens criticize it as “opinion censorship”. Fox News ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ is also protesting.

Tucker Carlson Tonight said through a Facebook account: “Facebook is trying to prevent people from seeing our posts about coronavirus whistleblowers. “This is censorship,” he said, and that the news will cover this.

When Facebook flagged a “false information” warning in Dr. Jen Li-Meng’s video interview with Fox News “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News criticized it as “censorship” via Facebook. [페이스북 캡처]

The thesis of Dr. Yan’s team is also causing much debate in the scientific and medical world. Andrew Preston, a professor at the University of Bath in England, told Newsweek that “there is no credibility for this article in its current form.”

Health expert Michael Head, Ph.D. from the University of Southampton in the UK, told The Daily Mail in the UK: “Articles that clearly show that the novel coronavirus was not manufactured in a laboratory have already been peer-tested.” Clearly, it does not provide any data that exceeds it. ”

On the other hand, according to the Tech Times, Dr. Lawrence Selin, a former US surgeon, argued that “(Dr. Yen) supports this claim and even thinks that the new coronavirus may be an artificial disease targeting certain countries.

The controversy is expected to spread to the political world as well. Newsweek also said that Dr. Yen’s team appears to have joined an organization created by Steve Bannon, a far-right aide to President Donald Trump.

Reporter Lim Sun-young youngcan @ joongang.co, .kr