Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Claim:
Chinese intelligence officer terms the Novel Coronavirus as a biological weapon invented by China. The viral post also claims that the damage caused by the pandemic is being normalized by the Chinese officials. The website which has published the alleged testimony of the said Chinese intelligence officer has published the report with the headline, “CORONA UNMASKED: Chinese Intelligence Officer Reveals True Magnitude of China’s Fake “Coronavirus” Crisis – 包含中文字符版本”.
#Corona Unmasked: Chinese intelligence officer reveals truth that it’s a #BiologicalWeapon China developed and was to use to end Hong Kong protests but it backfired. If it’s true, world must come together to end #biologicalweapons #CoronavirusOutbreakhttps://t.co/2T6JIuQcd5
— Debashish Sarkar (@DebashishHiTs) March 15, 2020
Verification:
Coronavirus, a pandemic which has been declared a national emergency in many countries, has created a ruckus on the internet because of countless viral claims on social media. While many of these claims are either true or authentic, some claims are created merely for smearing or to criticizing an institution, government or state. We were flagged to fact check a claim that has gone viral on social media. The viral post is a report published by a WordPress website. The viral report has allegedly been written by an anonymous intelligence officer who claims to have secret information about the invention of this alleged biological weapon. The alleged intelligence officer also accuses Chinese officials of hiding the truth of the coronavirus crisis in the Chinese territory. The article elaborates on how a Chinese researcher wanted to sell a biological weapon to the United States but the research went horribly wrong and the entire city suffered the plague of an epidemic.
The full report can be viewed here.
CORONA UNMASKED: Chinese Intelligence Officer Reveals True Magnitude of China’s Fake “Coronavirus” Crisis – 包含中文字符版本
CORONA UNMASKED 暴露冠状病毒 包含中文字符版本 Chinese Intelligence Officer Reveals True Magnitude of China’s Fake “Coronavirus” Crisis (Copyright 2020, R.D. Morningstar & u /武汉病毒被丢弃-All Rights Reserved) 通过 u /武汉病毒被丢弃 By u/武汉病毒被丢弃 (Wuhan Virus was Dropped) Edited by Robert D. Morningstar To Free the Chinese people: For the good and general welfare of the Chinese people and the World,…
As we read the full report, we could figure out that the identity of the person who made the aforementioned claims and penned down the report is concealed. The concealed identity can be made to protect the whistleblower as we often see in case of big exposes but it is noteworthy that no substantial evidence is produced in the article to back the claim made in the report, thereby raising suspicions. We also found that the alleged intelligence officer who goes with the Reddit username ‘WuhanVirusThrowAway’ has published this article in a Reddit community forum namely ‘NoSleep. The articles published by the user WuahnVirusThrowAway can be viewed below.
Wuhanvirusthrowaway (u/Wuhanvirusthrowaway) – Reddit
I am a Chinese citizen in Wuhan who occupies – or perhaps occupied – a high-ranking position in military intelligence. I am also a member of the Chinese Communist Party. As a senior official near the top of the Party, I have access to a great deal of classified information and I have been involved in many top secret government projects.
The original article published by the user ‘WuhanVirusThrowAway’ in the Reddit community forum ‘NoSleep’ can be viewed below.
I am a senior Chinese military intelligence officer and I know the truth about the coronavirus outbreak. It is far worse than the media are telling you. from r/nosleep
Now, we tried to find if the article that was published in the Reddit community forum ‘NoSleep’ is authentic or not. We visited the posting guidelines on the community. We found that the community guidelines of the said community does not endorse authenticity and publishes stories that are believable but not necessarily true. Posting guidelines of the community can be viewed below.
nosleep
Return to index Posts and comments on this subreddit may be removed at moderator discretion. We do our very best to remove rule-breaking posts and inappropriate comments, and to be fair to all authors and readers. Rules are not applied retroactively after being introduced.
The posting guidelines of the community strictly suggest posting an interesting horror story that doesn’t have to be the truth necessarily.
Similarly comment guidelines and FAQs can be viewed below.
nosleep
Readers are to act as though everything is true and treat it as such in the comments. * No debunking, disbelief, or criticism (constructive or otherwise). * Do not ask for proof, or tl;dr’s/summaries. * Be respectful to one another. * Comments must contribute to the discussion.
Now, it was evident from our fact check that the story published by the Reddit community No Sleep is just a horror story and does not have anything to do with reality.
Now, we also found that the community itself terms it as a storytelling platform and not a true story publisher.
An excerpt from the same article can be read below
Reader FAQ
Are the stories here true?
Probably not – but while you’re in /r/NoSleep, everything is true. Outside of NoSleep, a story may be fact or may be fiction. The important thing is that while you’re here, treat everything as though it is a true recount of events.
But I really want to know if this story is true or not! Can I ask in a comment?
No. If you have questions about a story that will cause you to break the suspension of disbelief for other readers, you can ask either in /r/NoSleepOOC or simply PM the author of the story themselves.
Asking for photos, videos, police reports, maps, or any other sort of proof is also a rule violation.
For further reference, please see this comment from one of our readers on the subject.
I still don’t understand! What do you mean by breaking the suspension of disbelief?
NoSleep is not a confessional support forum. It is a storytelling forum. These stories are not required to be true. “Believable” means it could reasonably happen, not that the author is required to make you believe the story. This only extends to one story or series, not an author’s entire account. Calling out an author for not having a continuous persona throughout an account counts as “debunking”.
As far as commenting goes, you should behave as if the events described in the story happened. However, it is not required to agree with the opinions and conclusions drawn by the narrator.
Okay (Agreeing): “Wow, your roommate came home ill and he hasn’t come out of his room all day? If he is possessed, call a priest!”
Okay (Disagreeing): “He’s probably just sick, call him a doctor.”
Not Okay (Accusing): “Whatever man, FAKE.”
Not Okay (Debunking): “Actually, he couldn’t have been out at xyz club because that shut down last year, and he wouldn’t be tired from drinking 3 beers…” etc
FAQ regarding the Reddit community No Sleep can be viewed below.
nosleep
Readers are to act as though everything is true and treat it as such in the comments. * No debunking, disbelief, or criticism (constructive or otherwise). * Do not ask for proof, or tl;dr’s/summaries. * Be respectful to one another. * Comments must contribute to the discussion.
Hence it is evident from our fact-check that the claim made by the alleged intelligence officer is not true and is purely a work of fiction.
Sources
Google Search
Result: False
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Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
