Facebook will stop removing theories that Covid-19 came out of a laboratory

Facebook will stop prohibiting the publication of theories that affirm that the covid-19 was manufactured by man, since speculation about a laboratory accident in China return to the debate in the United States.

“In light of current research on the origins of the covid-19 and in consultation with health experts, we will no longer remove from our platforms claims that covid-19 was man-made or manufactured”, the group, which also owns Instagram, said on its website Wednesday.

The social network, used by some 3.45 billion people on at least one of its four platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp) goes against its previous rules on disinformation in times of covid-19, updated last month of February.

At the time, they included the prohibition of theories that suggested the existence of a human hand behind the virus, as well as the alleged ineffectiveness of vaccines or that anticovid injections could be toxic or dangerous.

“We continue to work with experts to monitor the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge,” claimed Facebook.

At the same time, the theory of a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China, has made a comeback in recent weeks in the American debate, having long been discounted by most experts. And calls for further research are multiplying in the scientific community.

The president of USA, Joe Biden, on Wednesday asked its intelligence agencies to “redouble their efforts” to explain the origin of the coronavirus and demanded a report within 90 days.

The president recalled that the work of US intelligence, which focuses on two hypotheses, animal origin or escape from a laboratory, did not allow to date to reach “a definitive conclusion”.

After a four-week visit to Wuhan Earlier this year, a joint study by the World Health Organization and Chinese experts deemed a laboratory accident in March “extremely unlikely.”

The United States and 13 allied countries later expressed “concern” over the report in a joint statement, demanding that China provide “full access” to its data.

The first cases of covid-19 were identified in late 2019 in Wuhan, before the virus spread across the world and killed nearly 3.5 million people.