Facebook recently found and removed what can perhaps be called a disturbing phenomenon. And where it comes to disturbing, then it may not spring up such a big surprise to know that the origin of the facet was China.
Disturbing, dystopian, and doomed are perhaps three apt words that describe the working of a country that cares little for the sovereignty of the world. Then it’s little wonder that what was traced by Facebook was, in no uncertain terms, a massive cause of strife in the online world.
A disinformation network about which it can be said, was created exclusively to spread fake information with regards to the United States of America. While the world as on date is yet to find the so called biologist by the name of Wilsdon Edwards, a totally bogus creation of China, what has being spread in the name of the said biologist, however, was a claim that the US did not really want the world to know the emergence of COVID 19.
Not long after Facebook was able to locate the source of the disinformation network, linked to several Chinese-base accounts, each of them got simply blown apart, instead of withering away ever so gently.
We already knew that China and America were too big opposites and competing forces, both one of a kind.
But what we also know now is that in this tech-driven, data-heavy age of information overload, the battles lines have clearly been drawn and the venue of war has changed, the mainstream focus shifted onto the cyber world. It is here where two modern giants are fighting, one still considered a hero and the other, a global superpower whose incessant rise must not go unchecked.
But a thing that must not go unchecked or under appreciated is the background amid which the several fake accounts linked to this massive disinformation network based in China have been found and torn apart.
In the past decade, if there’s one country, in particular, that has generated the maximum attempts at snooping on the United States on the spheres of Science and Technology, Information Technology, Nuclear Research (among the others), then it’s China.
That being said, finding a new way to malign the US with regards to the COVID 19 pandemic is but a different if not so original methodology being used by Chinese agents, if it must be said so.
On its part, the United States must be concerned more than ever since besides Russia, an old foe, it’s the burgeoning crisis caused by increased Chinese meddling especially in the online sphere that has become a huge issue over the years.
Meanwhile, more information on the huge disinformation network based in China had the BBC share the following:
The accounts had promoted the claims of a fake Swiss biologist called “Wilson Edwards“, who alleged the US was meddling in efforts to find the origins of Covid-19.
Edwards’ comments had been widely carried by Chinese state media outlets.
However, the Swiss embassy said that it was unlikely this person existed.
Meta said in its report the social media campaign was “largely unsuccessful,” and targeted English-speaking audiences in the United States and Britain and Chinese-speaking audiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.
Earlier in July, an account posing as a Swiss biologist called Wilson Edwards had made statements on Facebook and Twitter that the United States was applying pressure on the World Health Organization scientists who were studying the origins of Covid-19 in an attempt to blame the virus on China.
That being resolved, who knows what else could China already be working on in yet another irate attempt to cause America more agony?