How Facebook’s ‘independent fact checkers’ cited letter secretly organized by Wuhan lab funder Peter Daszak to ‘debunk’ leak theory and punish news outlets that explored it

How Facebook’s ‘independent fact checkers’ cited letter secretly organized by Wuhan lab funder Peter Daszak to ‘debunk’ leak theory and punish news outlets that explored it

Facebook’s ‘independent fact checkers’ relied on a letter spearheaded by a major financial backer of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to ‘debunk’ articles exploring the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a leak from the lab, it has emerged.

For nearly a year, Facebook censored articles exploring the lab leak theory, labeling them ‘false information’ and punishing news publishers by limiting their reach on the platform, before the social media giant sheepishly reversed course last month.

Facebook relies on third-party fact-checkers to ‘debunk’ false claims, and in the case of the lab leak theory, a February article from Facebook partner Science Feedback played a key role in the social media site’s censorship.

The article, which purported to ‘debunk’ a New York Post opinion column questioning China‘s denials of a lab leak scenario, prominently cited a letter to The Lancet, a leading medical journal, signed by ’27 eminent public health experts’.

It has now emerged that the Lancet letter, which played a key role in suppressing early debate on the pandemic’s origins, was not only signed but organized by Peter Daszak, whose group funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars to controversial gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).