BRUSSELS (AP) It took just three months for the rumor that COVID-19 was engineered as a bioweapon to spread from the fringes of the Chinese internet and tak
(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2020 file photo, people wearing masks attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong. The outpouring of grief and . FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2020 file photo, people wearing masks attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong. The outpouring of grief and rage sparked by Li s death was an unusual - and for the Chinese Communist Party, unsettling - display in China s tightly monitored civic space. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File) FILE - In this March 11, 2020 file photo, Russian Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky speaks during a session at the State Duma, the .
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It took just three months for the rumour that COVID-19 was engineered as a bioweapon to spread from the fringes of the Chinese internet and take root in millions of people´s minds.
By March 2020, belief that the virus had been human-made and possibly weaponised was widespread, multiple surveys indicated.
The Pew Research Center found, for example, that one in three Americans believed the new coronavirus had been created in a lab; one in four thought it had been engineered intentionally.
This chaos was, at least in part, manufactured, according to a nine-month Associated Press investigation of state-sponsored disinformation conducted in collaboration with the Atlantic Council s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
Anatomy of a conspiracy: With COVID-19, China took leading role
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Last Updated: Feb 15, 2021, 11:17 AM IST
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Synopsis
A nine-month investigation of state-sponsored disinformation conducted in collaboration with the Atlantic Council s Digital Forensic Research Lab, shows how a rumor that the U.S. created the virus that causes COVID-19 was weaponized by the Chinese government, spreading from the dark corners of the Internet to millions across the globe.
AP
In Pic: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing
BRUSSELS : The rumors began almost as soon as the disease itself. Claims that a foreign adversary had unleashed a bioweapon emerged at the fringes of Chinese social media the same day China first reported the outbreak of a mysterious virus.