We all are now witnessing a situation which had already made its place in the history of almost all the countries. This pandemic is yet to be fought for long. Behind all this, we can also see the misinformation as well as all the fake news which is being spread in the name of COVID-19. There are number of theories coming out now, being said to be connected to the novel Coronavirus.
Now here we are talking of another misinformation which is now being spread in the form of a short movie or rather as a video clip. The duration of this video is of almost 30-minutes, taken from a known film“Plandemic Movie” or “Plandemic Documentary”. This video is spreading debunked conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and also features a discredited biologist who has for years been “lionised by the medical conspiracy community,” according to fact-checking organization Snopes.
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“The roughly 26-minute ‘Plandemic Movie’ video claims to be an excerpt of a larger documentary to be released this summer and contains claims about the origins of the virus and how it spreads,” CNBC writes of the clip. “The video tries to argue that the coronavirus pandemic was created to make profits off vaccines. Among other claims that defy advice of medical experts, it suggests that sheltering in place harms consumers’ immune systems and that masks can make people sicker.”
All the online platforms whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube had begun with the removal of this video, yet it appears the companies’ desire to quash it have also encouraged it to spread further. New copies and links to the clip continue to circulate on social media, some of which have racked up thousands of views on YouTube and Facebook. On Twitter, where, #Plandemic was a trending topic on Wednesday, the video’s removal has been met with cries of censorship and, in some cases, fuelled further conspiracy theories about the reasons for its removal.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others platforms have struggled for the containment of this misinformation about the coronavirus even as the platforms attempt to elevate authoritative sources and are implementing much more stringent rules especially when it comes to any kind of health misinformation during the pandemic. Further complicating matters is the fact that companies like Facebook are operating at reduced capacity as many of their content moderators are unable to work.