A Danish study released by 22 medical researchers questioned the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19. But Twitter doesn’t want users to talk about it.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton tweeted on Nov. 18 that “Massive Danish study further confirms masks don’t work and may be dangerous. #ConstitutionOverCoronavirus.” In a screenshot shared to his Parler account, Fitton said, “I've been locked out of Twitter for 12 hours for posting this accurate tweet.” He then said that Twitter required him to delete his tweet in order to regain access to his account.
The Annals of Internal Medicine published the study, “Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers.” It was about an experiment to measure the effect of wearing a mask. The study stated, “The recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use.”
Twitter’s own blog stated, “[W]e consider claims to be false or misleading if (1) they have been confirmed to be false by subject-matter experts, such as public health authorities; or (2) they include information which is shared in a way that could confuse or deceive people.” Twitter has not released a list of “subject-matter experts” it relies on.
The World Health Organization had tweeted in March 2020 that “If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected #coronavirus infection.” But it seems any other sort of discussion among the medical research community is not allowed, particularly when it comes to questioning common practice.
Dr. James Todaro tweeted the study, but later tweeted, “So twitter just bulk erased ~2,000 likes for this tweet. It was well over 4k likes ten minutes ago and now it's down to 2.7k.”
Meanwhile, Twitter allowed Spokesperson & Deputy Director General, Information Department, Foreign Ministry of China Lijian Zhao to spread Chinese propaganda on the platform. Zhao tweeted a piece headlined “COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US” at 9:02 p.m. on March 12. Later that day, he speculated, “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.” A warning label was added months later, according to Axios.
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