Twitter flags Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian's tweet on COVID-19

Twitter has flagged a post written by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian in March where he suggested that the coronavirus was brought by the US Army. Twitter has put an exclamation mark underneath the tweet with a link that says, "Get the facts about COVID-19." Upon clicking the link, one is directed to a page with an article, and the headline reads, "WHO says evidence suggests COVID-19 originated in animals and was not produced in a lab."

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Zhao Lijian on March 12 had shared a clip of what appears to be a US CDC member testifying before the Congress along with a short note that read, "CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!"

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Twitter flagging US President's tweet

Twitter on Thursday flagged the post as part of its fact-checking policy aimed at controlling the flow of misinformation on the micro-blogging platform. Twitter on May 26 flagged US President Donald Trump's tweet for spreading misinformation regarding voting via mail-in boxes. In retaliation, Donald Trump on May 28 signed an executive order removing liability shield for social media companies who engage in censoring political content saying that it is to 'protect and uphold the free speech rights of the American people'. 

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(Image Credit: AP)