In an unprecedented move, Facebook has censored and penalised Wion News for carrying an interview with Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan who is a Chinese dissident.
Facebook has called the interview of virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan as “misleading content”.
Restricting its reach, Facebook notified that the content would be seen by less people as it has been rated ‘false’ by an ‘independent fact-checker’.
Executive Editor of WION Palki Sharma tweeted about Facebook’s move saying that WION was being censored and penalized by the social media giant for giving platform to a dissenter of Communist Party of China. “You can disagree her, debunk her. Why deny her the right to speak”, Palki Sharma questioned.
There we go again! @WIONews being censored & penalised, this time by @Facebook,for giving a platform to a CCP dissenter. How is carrying an interview with Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan “misleading content?” You can disagree with her,debunk her.Why deny her the right to speak? pic.twitter.com/LWL0yo1LFA
— Palki Sharma (@palkisu) October 12, 2020
Dr Li-Meng Yan, an ophthalmologist and virologist in an interview with Palki Sharma had said that she was aware of the person to person transmission of COVID-19 in late December 2019.
Yan had apparently raised this problem higher up the chain of command in January 2020 and alleged that the Chinese government and the World Health Organization (WHO) knew about the person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.
According to Dr Yan, the Chinese Communist Party had been keeping tabs on her and are keeping track of her activities in New York. In an interview with US news network Fox News, Yan also said that China had detained her mother.
“This is not the first time my Mom and my other family member get arrested [sic] by the Chinese Communist party. This is the first time my Mom, a 63-year-old teacher, got arrested by the Chinese Communist Party,” she said on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“I’m the only child in my family. My Mom has done nothing wrong. The only thing they arrest my Mom for, and send her to Beijing, is because I tell the truth of COVID-19, which Chinese government feel angry about. What they have done is try to make me silent,” she said.