[ExI] it's not? indeed?

[Kelly Anderson]

On Mon, Jan 22, 2024 at 1:06 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> > We saw dissenting views squelched on the internet, labeled disinformation with the implication that disinformation is false information.  Now we know disinformation, misinformation and malinformation might be true.
>
> Please be specific about this accusation.  For a fact, I don't know
> how information can be squelched given that anyone can post anything
> they want on FB.  Would it be squelched if I posted a claim that
> COVID-19 was brought to the US by little green aliens?

I can't say definitively whether or not Covid was leaked from the lab
and I doubt anyone can. I did see an Australian news production where
Donald Trump was interviewed and said he believed it came from the lab
based upon secret stuff he couldn't share publicly. The Donald is
honesty challenged at best. However, it has seemed likely since
January of 2020 to me based upon the fact that the virology lab is
proximate to the initial outbreak and the bats in question live far
away.

All that being said, I can be more definitive about the Facebook
response to the lab leak hypothesis.

The following is partially based upon the following three articles
published at the time.
https://www.wionews.com/technology/facebook-lifts-ban-on-lab-leak-posts-as-us-investigates-origin-of-coronavirus-387899
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-facebook-reverses-wont-lab-virus.html
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/27/facebook-is-no-longer-censoring-the-lab-leak-theory/

Facebook initially limited and blocked posts that promoted the lab
leak theory of the COVID-19 virus during the early days of the
pandemic. This action was part of their broader policy to suppress
what they considered to be misinformation about the pandemic. The
policy included banning posts suggesting that COVID-19 was a man-made
virus or had escaped from a lab.

However, Facebook reversed this policy on May 26, 2021 and lifted the
ban on posts discussing the lab leak theory as a possible origin of
the coronavirus. This change in policy occurred in light of ongoing
investigations into the virus's origins and evolving discussions in
the scientific community and the media about the possibility of a lab
leak. The reversal also followed new intelligence and public
statements that lent some credence to this theory.

So, while the lab leak itself is controversial, the Facebook response
to the lab leak hypothesis is very well documented.

-Kelly