The “war” Facebook’s censors are waging in Australia against a member of the country’s parliament for his opinions on coronavirus and treatment of the resulting disease is escalating.
This is happening under pressure from the opposition, some media, but also in light of Facebook’s new, more stringent censorship rules around Covid. Now MP Craig Kelly from Australia’s ruling party has been banned for a week because he posted “Covid misinformation.”
The “misinformation” here were three links that contained information which some media say defies “conventional medical wisdom” – this is one of the euphemisms to justify censorship, and disqualify not only dissent, but even skepticism, that is part and parcel of any genuine scientific process.
“I strongly object to the ban, there are absolutely no grounds whatsoever. The points are a legitimate point of view. I’m not posting my opinions, I’m posting the opinions of medical experts,” Kelly said.
The “conventional medical wisdom” that is apparently so fragile it cannot withstand any debate concerns two of Kelly’s favorite causes: championing the use of available and cheap drugs to treat Covid, like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and rejecting claims that children benefit from wearing face masks.
The three links that Facebook found censorship-worthy led to sources citing professors Dolores Cahill and Thomas Borody, who advocate the use of the two drugs; and pathologist Roger Hodkinson, who dismissed the need for children to wear masks, saying that masks made of paper and fabric – i.e., non medical ones – are nothing but virtue signaling.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that banning Kelly came as the giant has developed a zero-tolerance policy towards Covid misinformation that “could” result in “imminent physical harm.”
But even the most zealous anti-hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin reports don’t actually say they cause “imminent physical harm.” What these reports do is cite are “reputable” studies that claim these drugs are “ineffective.” But in many countries, like China, India, and Israel, hydroxychloroquine is used to treat Covid patients.
That leads to the conclusion that the disproportionately heated campaign against hydroxychloroquine in some other countries is political in nature, because hydroxychloroquine was endorsed by President Trump, which quickly mobilized his political opponents to paint it as “deadly dangerous.”
Either way – it is a political narrative that persists and serves as the basis for yet another wave of Facebook’s censorship.
