Pro-China social media accounts are pushing a new thread of propaganda about the origins of the pandemic, claiming that Covid was imported to Wuhan from the U.S. through a batch of Maine lobsters, the University of Oxford found. #NBCNewsThreads (1/6)
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nbcnews.to/3n9AybO
Marcel Schliebs, a disinformation researcher at the university, uncovered more than 550 Twitter accounts spreading a nearly identical message. Translated into multiple languages, the message was sent at similar times each day between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. China Standard Time. (2/6)
“This is the third or fourth major different redirection Chinese officials have gone in to try and somehow pin the Covid outbreak on the U.S.,” said Bret Schafer, the head of the information manipulation team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. (3/6)
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the claims about lobsters have no scientific basis.
“It’s a right load of codswallop,” said spokesperson Robert Long. (4/6)
“It’s a right load of codswallop,” said spokesperson Robert Long. (4/6)
Kai Yan, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.K., said China was “opposed to the fabrication and spread of disinformation.” (5/6)
Despite the swift suspension of the accounts by Twitter, the same theory is still spreading.
“It seems like accounts are being set up now to replace the ones taken down in response to our investigation,” Schliebs said. (6/6)
“It seems like accounts are being set up now to replace the ones taken down in response to our investigation,” Schliebs said. (6/6)
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