Translated material
Pavel Durov criticized Facebook and Twitter for blocking fakes about COVID-19
Telegram founder Pavel Durov criticized the largest social networks for blocking false information about the coronavirus. According to Durov, this is an ineffective way to combat fakes.
Durov noted that at the time of the emergence of any new idea, it is often difficult to immediately understand whether it is scientific or not. As an example, the founder of Telegram cited the blocking of messages that the coronavirus is of artificial origin on Twitter and Facebook. He stressed that if a year ago the opinion about the origin of the virus from the laboratory in Wuhan was considered a conspiracy theory, now many serious scientists already admit this version .
According to Durov, such blocking of information by social networks undermines people's trust in the neutrality of platforms and jeopardizes the fight against disinformation in the future. He stated that Telegram believes that only the users themselves should decide what they believe.
In 20 years of managing discussion platforms, I have noticed that conspiracy theories only get stronger each time their content is removed by moderators. Instead of putting an end to wrong ideas, censorship often makes it harder to fight them. This is why spreading the truth will always be a more effective strategy than using censorship.
- WHO following an investigation in China in March published a report on the origin of the coronavirus, in which the most likely option was its transmission to humans from animals. The version of artificial origin was characterized there as "extremely unlikely."
- Major social networks have been moderating posts with information about the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. Most of them are placed on Facebook and Twitter with links to official information about the disease.