A financial blog’s Twitter account was suspended after a controversial article that accused a scientist for developing coronavirus as a bioweapon.
Zero Hedge made a scapegoat of the Chinese scientist
In an article from the financial blog Zero Hedge, a Chinese scientist was accused of creating the coronavirus as a “biological weapon”.
“The account has been permanently suspended for violating our platform manipulation policy,” explains a Twitter spokesman referring to Zero Hedge account.
Twitter suspended the account last Friday after they publishes the name and other personal data along with a photo of a Chinese scientist.
The article accused the scientist for developing coronavirus as a bioweapon
The blog published an article titled “Is This The Man Behind The Global Coronavirus Pandemic?” where they accused the scientist for developing Wuhan’s coronavirus as a “biological weapon.”
Zero Hedge’s Twitter account had around 670,000 followers and is “permanently suspended for violating the platform’s manipulation policy” according to Reuters.
The social network highlighted that “the measure against the website occurs at a time when the coronavirus has fueled a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment across the world.”
Twitter spokesperson said that there is an increase in the spreading the false or malicious information promoted by “conspiracy theorists”.
And according to the spokesperson, conspiracy theorists takes advantage of “the shortage of information” from Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak.
Social networks fight disinformation around the coronavirus
Last week, Twitter – and other social networks, including Facebook and YouTube – announced that they would combat the false news or malicious information around the Wuhan coronavirus.
We want to help you access credible information, especially when it comes to public health.
We’ve adjusted our search prompt in key countries across the globe to feature authoritative health sources when you search for terms related to novel #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/RrDypu08YZ
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) January 29, 2020
Among other measures, Twitter announced that they modified the search algorithms to boost the spread of “credible information” and contrasting sources among its users.
“We’ve adjusted our search prompt in key countries across the globe to feature authoritative health sources when you search for terms related to novel #coronavirus”, the social network announced in a tweet .