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Why Social Media Companies Were Wrong to Muzzle Lab Leak Theorists

by Toby Young
25 May 2021 7:53 PM

I’ve written a piece for Mail+ today on why it was wrong for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to remove content defending the lab leak theory and label it ‘misinformation’, given that it’s now entered the mainstream. One of the best arguments against censorship on Social media is that the ‘independent’ fact-checkers the companies rely on to determine which points of view are respectable and which are ‘conspiracy theories’ will inevitably make mistakes – and the transformation of the lab leak theory from fringe hypothesis to most likely explanation is a perfect illustration of this. Here’s an extract:

A few weeks ago, former New York Times science writer and freelance British journalist Nicholas Wade wrote a blog post setting out the case for the lab leak theory in meticulous detail and it was as if the spell was broken. Suddenly, those putting forward this hypothesis were no longer “conspiracy theorists”, even if the Wikipedia page on Covid-19 Misinformation still describes us in that way.

On May 14, 12 days after Wade’s piece appeared, 18 scientists, including some from MIT and Harvard, wrote a letter to Science, a prestigious journal, saying both theories were “viable” and deserved rigorous investigation.

Shortly afterwards, the editorial board of the Washington Post called for the lab leak theory to be properly looked into and – a few days ago – even Dr Fauci himself conceded defeat, saying he’s “not convinced” Covid-19 developed naturally and calling for further investigation.

What all this goes to show is that no one has a monopoly on the truth when it comes to this virus – not eminent scientists, not government advisors, and certainly not social media companies. Those of us who depart from the official narrative should not be accused of spreading “misinformation” and silenced by the powers that be. Rather, we should be permitted to set out our case in the public square, supporting it with evidence and reason, and if the gatekeepers of respectable opinion think we’re wrong, they should set out their reasons in the same spirit of open debate, not smear us as “cranks” or “conspiracy theorists”.

When it comes to the lab leak theory, we may still turn out to be wrong. But the only way to find out is through a dispassionate, rigorous investigation. Censorship has never been a good technique for finding out the truth.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Lab leakWuhan Institute of Virology

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28 Comments
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Prester John
Prester John
4 years ago

I suspect that they wanted to suppress it as they guessed it was true, can’t upset Red China now.

10
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TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago

It’s not a “mistake” it was damage control by those up to their necks in it.

25
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yohodi
yohodi
4 years ago

I suspect too Mr Young in the near future you will be writing several pieces on why social media sites, and mainstream MSN have been wrong to supress alternative peer reviewed evidence throughout this scamdemic..

Last edited 4 years ago by yohodi
27
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Julian
Julian
4 years ago

All social media platforms over a certain size must operate as neutral carriers- not allowed to interfere with content unless that content is demonstrably illegal, and immune from liability or prosecution for content they did not create

This must be a legal condition of doing business

It’s the only way democracy can survive

21
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iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Hmm, which ‘democracy’ is that?

Last edited 4 years ago by iane
0
0
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
4 years ago

I’ve long thought it was man made so I started digging. I came across an article with all the paperwork pinning it on Fauci. His institute redirected funds to a company which then passed the money to Wuhan. What were they paying to fund? How to get a virus to pass from animals to humans.
Obama’s Government had banned this Science. Fauci claims the money never went to Wuhan but, very grudgingly, admitted he did fund the company in the middle. The blame is fair and square on Fauci, America and China. The cover up has to end some day and those at fault must be brought to account.
Only the other day it was reported that three employees at Wuhan sought urgent treatment with Covid symptoms before the Chinese finally admitted there was an issue. Their excuse of it originated in a bat cave and got loose in a wet market is absurd.
We are finally winning and about time too!

19
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BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
4 years ago
Reply to  Richard Austin

And yet there was Fauci sitting right beside the President of the US delivering a Town Hall with YouTube influencers to encourage kids to take the vaccine.

Why is this not a case of him stepping down and an immediate investigation being started? Well, we know the reason. They are all implicated. This is a cabal. The narrative needs to be defended at all costs.

12
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peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

When there is mass murder taking place in front of your eyes with the employing of experimental gene therapies, you write about social media companies suppressing stories about Wuhan leaks. Strange concept of priorities.

5
-1
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

One small piece at a time that is how we will have to expose it and finally it will all fall over.

19
-1
Noumenon
Noumenon
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

You think leaks of genetically engineered viruses (to make them more dangerous) from laboratories funded and run by the very same shady characters who are employing experimental gene therapies worldwide without any regard for ensuring their safety is a questionable priority!?

8
-1
sophie123
sophie123
4 years ago
Reply to  Noumenon

Pieces of the jigsaw. Examine them one by one. Eventually it will all fall into place.

9
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peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago
Reply to  Noumenon

I know Fauci is up to his neck with funding routed through Eco-Health ( NYC) to Wuhan. Yes I hope he gets his ‘reward’. But that has happened, maybe the same thing can be stopped in the future, but I doubt it.
The point is, right now, across the world ordinary people are being induced to get jabbed with something can kill them. Its against every medical ethical code written. its immoral and probably illegal.
That is what should be the centre of any campaign. That and the destruction of the credibility of the Drosten RT-PCR test for SARS2.
Quite frankly anything else is a distraction.

15
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Rowan
Rowan
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

The point is, right now, across the world ordinary people are being induced to get jabbed with something that can kill them. 

It’s even worse than that, they are being induced or coerced to get jabbed with something that is actually meant to kill them. Some of the jabbed are dying quickly and many others are now seriously ill. While the rest of the jabbed have become ticking time bombs, with only the bleakest of futures.

Last edited 4 years ago by Rowan
7
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Noumenon
Noumenon
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

The Wuhan lab leak theory is a key linchpin in undermining the idea that these people can be trusted and that “The Science” is a God given undubitably good truth. There appears to be traction here and every effort should be made to prevent them from clinging to their natural origin theory which gives them justification for all kinds of other destructive actions e.g. their misguided eco-agenda and their ongoing threat of natural origin viruses. This last point is particularly important because they claim that on the basis of natural origin we must be prepared to be constantly vigilant due to the constant risk that more viruses will come from animals.

Last edited 4 years ago by Noumenon
5
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Mike Yeadon
Mike Yeadon
4 years ago
Reply to  Noumenon

I’m not convinced that the origin matters as much as you make out. The responses have been ridiculous & have killed far more people than the virus. That’s the real scandal.
Ok, in all probability it’s all of a piece. Not only lab made but leaked on purpose, that is probably what we’ll eventually conclude.
Look at the globally coordinated lies. Every one of the main narrative points about the virus & ‘measures’ are wrong, sometimes obviously so. I grant that politicians didn’t all know that, but in each case their scientific advisors did.
It’s impossible that the scientific advisors of scores of countries didn’t know that they had their politicians lying all at the same time.
There’s no escaping the bright lines of planned mendacity. And yes, planned, coordinated lying with predictably destructive impacts on the economies & civil societies is a conspiracy. Nothing theoretical about it.
The question is: are we collectively going to shove back hard enough, arrest the alleged criminal perpetrators & reclaim our old normal (which I miss badly)?
Or shall we limply step through the gates of hell to the digital prison planned for us (because not to will label us “conspiracy theorists”)?

Last edited 4 years ago by Mike Yeadon
17
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QuodVerumTutum
QuodVerumTutum
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike Yeadon

Biden will not touch China with a ten foot pole because he is knee-deep in corruption with them and can easily be blackmailed. If the USA doesn’t hold China accountable, then the rest of the world will be impotent to do so.

1
0
Mike Yeadon
Mike Yeadon
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

It’s definitely illegal. Injecting people with a substance which has a known thromboembolic risk is among the most reckless things I’ve ever heard of.
It’s not even clear that these products work to provide protection.
All downside of the minus six feet variety.

14
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Rowan
Rowan
4 years ago

One of the best arguments against censorship on Social media is that the ‘independent’ fact-checkers the companies rely on to determine which points of view are respectable and which are ‘conspiracy theories’ will inevitably make mistakes 

Perhaps the best argument against taking any notice of fact checkers is to look at who actually funds them.

30
0
String
String
4 years ago
Reply to  Rowan

To be fair they make it pretty clear who funds them – after the Orlando nightclub shooting approx. 5 years ago, so called ‘non-bias fact checkers’ concluded that just because the shooter was a registered Democrat, he was actually, in fact, not a proper Democrat. And though his father later attended Clinton rallys for the 2016 Pres election, he wasn’t a real Democrat either.

5
0
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
4 years ago

There is an even more detailed document on this issue with Fauci which has copies of all the documentation but this one is pretty detailed and damns America, Fauci and China.

https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741

4
-2
NonCompliant
NonCompliant
4 years ago

Ain’t funny how it’s taken over year for our pathetic mainstream media to report on what most people visiting here have suspected since day one ! I knew about all this in Jan 2020 when Zerohedge got suspended from Twitter for doing a lengthy piece joining the dots.
Funny how none of these shills thought notthing strange about the Wuhan Institute of Virology doing gain of function testing on bat coronaviruses !!!

13
0
String
String
4 years ago
Reply to  NonCompliant

CNN meanwhile confirm their status as an absolute joke – apparently, despite the fact that he mentioned it a year ago, & despite the fact that everybody was banned from sharing his clips, it’s Donald Trump’s fault for not trying to expose this lab theory earlier…!

5
0
Mike Yeadon
Mike Yeadon
4 years ago
Reply to  NonCompliant

All the main virology labs mess about with various molecular biology techniques to better understand barriers to inter species transmission. Ok, not full on GOF research, but to understand is definitely very interesting (I’m not recommending it, but as a scientist it is fascinating is it not?).
When I was a fresh post doc in the late 80s, a university peer worked at Pirbright. Even then when molecular biology was much more primitive, they were working on animal viruses and testing under what conditions they could infect human cell lines.
They did have leaks, too. They’re much more common than we’d like to imagine.
His summary of BSL4 security goes something like this: “intense care, gradually slackening towards complacency, a leak, panic, go back to intense care”.

13
0
OKUK
OKUK
4 years ago

I’m not on twitter but I do check out various BBC Fibsters from time to time.

I see this has suddenly popped up on the BBC “Specialist Disinformation Reporter’s” twitter feed since Fauci admitted the Wuhan Lab might have been the source of the virus.

“Who can reply?
People @mariannaspring follows or mentioned can reply.”

So looks like not only is she trying to shut down other people’s free speech but is embarrassed by the fact so many things she has claimed were “disinformation” have turned out to be matters of verifiable fact and is now stopping people point that out.

13
0
Nessimmersion
Nessimmersion
4 years ago

The BBC, MSM, SJW fact checkers were united in screeching fake news when Trump came out with this last year.
It is another indication that the left are happy with a million deaths if it harms Drumpf.
Meanwhile for quite amusement, look at how many lab leak ” Fact Check” articles are being rewritten now that yet again Trump is found to have been correct.

Example from https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/report-resurrects-baseless-claim-that-coronavirus-was-bioengineered/

“The baseless claim — which we first addressed in the early days of the pandemic — was further amplified when Fox News host Tucker Carlson featured an interview with one of the authors of the paper on his show on Sept. 15.

That segment was viewed on YouTube nearly 2 million times and that link alone was shared by more nearly 50,000 users on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle analytics data, where other popular posts also repeated the allegations.

But experts say the new paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, does not prove that the virus was created in a lab”

4
0
Mike Yeadon
Mike Yeadon
4 years ago

I’m not of the view that a leak makes that much difference. Unless it was leaked deliberately the situation is one of inappropriate responses not the existence in the world of one more respiratory virus.
Turning off the PCR cyclers & going back to normal would be the wisest course. Just stop talking about Covid19 & go on a spending bender. Pretend it didn’t happen.

12
0
imp66
imp66
4 years ago

The truth? The truth! Since when did a small detail like the truth ever get in the way of these power-crazed bastards!

1
0
QuodVerumTutum
QuodVerumTutum
4 years ago

Unfit to Be President Biden will sign an EO that anyone who dares to suggest the Lab Leak Hypothesis is to suffer great damage.
The operative is in China’s pocket. Yet there is no investigation.
China, China, China.

1
0

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