Facebook will no longer delete messages on the social medium stating that humans developed the coronavirus.
A spokesperson for the company has informed news site Politico. The decision follows the renewed discussion about the origin of the virus.
“In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of Covid-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the allegation that Covid-19 is man-made from our apps,” said the spokesperson. “We will continue to work with health experts to keep up with the changing nature of the pandemic and update our policies regularly as new facts and trends emerge.”
Facebook has not allowed posts since February stating that the virus was developed by humans. Recently, however, doubts have arisen about this ‘misleading claim’, after The Wall Street Journal reported based on American intelligence that employees of the laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan – where the outbreak started – had already in 2019 had complaints that belong to the virus.
The laboratory denies that employees fell ill at the time due to a possible outbreak of the coronavirus. A World Health Organization (WHO) study previously found that the virus probably didn’t come from a laboratory but animals. There was a lot of criticism of that investigation because China would not have given enough disclosure.