EXCLUSIVE — Twitter has blocked a watchdog group from placing advertisements promoting the COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis on its platform, according to emails obtained by the Washington Examiner.
White Coat Waste Project, a group tracking federal spending that investigates National Institutes of Health grants, had 10 paid tweets and a video ad rejected on March 3 by the social media giant, emails show. Twitter alleged that the ads, which include claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lab leak hypothesis, and taxpayer-backed animal experiments, make "distasteful references to COVID-19" and violated its "Inappropriate Content Policy."
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"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Justin Goodman, the watchdog's senior vice president for advocacy and public policy, told the Washington Examiner.
"Even under Elon Musk, the partisans and parasites at Twitter are still abusing their authority and censoring the truth. ... It's shameful that Twitter is preventing us from simply letting taxpayers know about our work to stop big government bureaucrats from wasting $20 billion of their hard-earned money on cruel and dangerous animal experiments," Goodman added.
White Coat Waste Project has continued to investigate both COVID-19 origins and how the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci led until 2022, has used taxpayer dollars for experiments on animals. Led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), 10 Republicans and Democrats pressed the NIH in December 2022 to no longer spend money on "cruel dog tests," the Washington Examiner reported.
While there is no scientific consensus on whether COVID-19 emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, the Energy Department has determined that a lab leak likely caused the virus to spread. Still, Twitter blocked WCW from placing several paid tweets related to the hypothesis, including one that read, "WCW Project is leading the campaign to defund the #WuhanLab. Follow us now! #LabLeak," and another noting, "Wuhan is an ANIMAL lab. You paid for it. We exposed it. Help END more wasteful govt $ to animal labs. Follow us now! #LabLeak."
Some of the ads linked to an ad that the watchdog made, which includes video clips of lawmakers and media members discussing the lab leak hypothesis. The video also included a clip of Fauci mentioning what appears to be the NIH's "collaboration" on projects through the years with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese government-backed lab that has received U.S. funding.
However, Alec Goldberg, Twitter's senior client account manager, told WCW that the paid tweets were "halted" for running afoul of the company's "Political Content" policy, which bars political promotion "except for campaigns targeting specified countries where it is allowed with restrictions," according to its website.
"We define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome," Twitter's website states.
Goldberg told WCW: "To be specific, the bio and landing page have mentions of appointed government officials (Dr. Fauci), multiple congress members, references to political parties, and regulatory change. "Additionally, we've found distasteful references to [sic] Covid 19, a sensitive event, which is in violation of our Inappropriate Content Policy. If this content is removed we can conduct a new review."
Twitter's Inappropriate Content Policy prohibits content that is "dangerous or exploitative," "demeaning or inflammatory," or promotes "personal attacks," "violence," or "profanity and vulgarity," among other descriptors.
Goldberg told WCW that its "messaging around COVID-19 would need to be softened" in order for the watchdog to run the paid tweets. He linked to a form for the group to fill out to potentially be approved for political advertising "certification."
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The ad-blocking revelation comes roughly one week after the Global Times, a Chinese government-run newspaper, warned Musk against boosting the lab leak theory. The Twitter CEO said prior, "He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth)," in response to someone asking whether Fauci may have "funded the development of COVID-19."
Musk has major investments in China through Tesla, which has a factory in Shanghai that accounts for a large portion of its manufacturing output. His wealth mostly comes from his shares in the car company.