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The Facebook Files
Confirmed

Facebook Banned 'Man-Made' COVID Claims, Then Reversed in May 2021

In February 2021, Facebook added the claim that 'COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured' to its list of COVID misinformation to remove. About four months later, as President Biden ordered an intelligence review of the virus's origins, Facebook said it would no longer remove that claim.

May 26, 2021
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Whose side it served: Neither party

Enforced the prevailing public-health position of the time; no single party was the clear beneficiary.

What the record shows

Facebook's Feb. 8, 2021 update to its COVID misinformation policy listed 'COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured' among false claims it would remove. A May 26, 2021 update to the same page said: 'we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured from our apps.' Facebook cited 'ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19' and consultation with public health experts. The change came the same week Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to report on the virus's origins.

In their words

“we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured”— Facebook (Meta) newsroom update, May 26, 2021 · source
The other side

At the time of the ban, the WHO-China joint study had called a lab origin 'very unlikely,' and Facebook's rule tracked the prevailing official view. The origin of COVID-19 remains unresolved, and U.S. agencies have split on the question.

Sources

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