China Says COVID-19 Came from Imported US Lobsters


China-linked social media accounts are pushing a new conspiracy theory about COVID-19. See, it didn't originate in Wuhan at all. Instead it just appeared to originate there because it was riding on live lobsters imported from the US!  

The disinformation campaign was spotted by a researcher at the University of Oxford who regularly monitors Chinese state media and diplomatic accounts.  A Chinese diplomat in India first tweeted the theory.

But it didn't end with the tweet from the diplomat. Investigating further, the researcher found that the claim was flogged by a network of 550 Twitter accounts. They spread the same message at times equivalent to 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. China Standard Time. 

Some of the accounts were so-called sock puppets whose sole purpose is to amplify messages in order to get them promoted by social media platforms' algorithms. The messages were translated into English, Spanish, French, Polish, Korean and even Latin. 

Wait...what? Latin?!? Lingua est, nemo loquitur!

This is all part of China's ongoing efforts to deflect blame for the virus away from itself—or barring that, muddy the waters about its true origin. Other "theories" they have peddled include that the virus originated at a US bioweapons research facility at Ft. Detrick, and that it was imported into Wuhan via frozen food.

Image by Elsemargriet from Pixabay edited by Corona-zona

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