News Snapshot:
Twitter accounts linked to China were detected circulating false information regarding COVID-19’s origins, including claims that the virus arrived in Wuhan via a cargo of Maine lobsters. When Oxford scholar Marcel Schliebs spotted a tweet from Zha Liyou, the Chinese consul general in Kolkata, India, he became aware of the misinformation campaign. At the Oxford Internet Institute, Schliebs researches disinformation, propaganda, and controversial political news content in the UK online information environment. He traced the message to hundreds of Twitter accounts, some legitimate and others not, all of which were disseminating pro-China propaganda. The tweet by Liyou said: “Major suspect...
