Twitter Blocks News Blog after Fake Coronavirus Messages

Twitter has permanently banned the Zero Hedge financial news blog from its messaging platform. That happened after the American website published a fake article about the coronavirus, in which a Chinese scientist was linked to the virus’s outbreak.

According to Reuters, the article in question contained unsubstantiated allegations against a scientist from the city of Wuhan, where the epidemic broke out.

It would have created the coronavirus intending to turn it into a biological weapon. The article was titled: “Is this the man behind the worldwide spread of the coronavirus?”

The article also released the name and contact details of the scientist – information that was fully shared in no time. Readers of the report were also suggested to visit the researcher at the Wuhan Virological Institute, to find out more about the cause of the epidemic.

According to Twitter, this violated the policy rules on ‘abuse and intimidation’ of the messaging service. The accessible account of Zero Hedge, which had around 670,000 followers, was therefore blocked.

However, the news blog did not stop there and immediately created a new account with the name FreeZeroHedge in the weekend. Over 42,000 followers were able to get hold of that in no time.

Twitter is not the only social media company that takes measures against fake news about the coronavirus. Facebook also announced last week that it will actively remove fake news and conspiracy theories surrounding the epidemic.