steven36 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 The financial news website came under fire for doxxing a Chinese scientist accused of being behind the virus. ZeroHedge has been permanently suspended from Twitter following a complaint stemming from an article that suggested a Chinese scientist was linked to the creation of the new coronavirus strain as a bioweapon. The financial markets news website was the subject of a recent Buzzfeed report which examined the article -- still online at the time of writing -- which connected a Wuhan-based scientist to the virus. ZeroHedge claimed, without evidence, that the scientist was involved in the development of the "weaponized" coronavirus strain. In addition, the publication doxxed the scientist by publishing his name, photograph, contact details, and the added comment, "Something tells us, if anyone wants to find out what really caused the coronavirus pandemic that has infected thousands of people in China and around the globe, they should probably pay [the scientist] a visit." ZeroHedge received a notification on Friday that the outlet's account would be suspended due to claims of violating Twitter's "rules against abuse and harassment." The microblogging platform confirmed the suspension, telling Reuters that ZeroHedge fell afoul of "platform manipulation policy." It was originally thought the suspension was due to a separate ZeroHedge article on the composition of the virus; however, the ban was due to the doxxing article. Before its suspension, the account catered for over 670,000 followers. Last week, Twitter said there have already been over 15 million tweets related to the coronavirus and while no "significant coordinated attempts to spread disinformation at scale about this issue" has been detected at present, the firm warned publishers that "those who engage in these practices will be removed from our service." Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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