(Headline USA) Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., was forced to delete a tweet last week after he was fact-checked for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Lieu was responding to the latest Twitter Files release, which exposed the government’s efforts to crack down on so-called COVID-19 “disinformation.” Reporter David Zweig revealed that the federal government “rigged” the COVID debate by “censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy” and “discrediting doctors and other experts who agreed.”
Responding to Zweig’s thread, Lieu claimed, “Dear @davidzweig: The tweet you cite is in fact misleading. People of all ages at high risk from COVID generally benefit from vaccines,” he tweeted. “Prior natural immunity may last only a few months. COVID appears to be a leading cause of death for children.”
Twitter CEO Elon Musk quickly responded to Lieu, pointing out that he had linked to old data that had “been rewritten” after a critique showed that it was “flawed and inaccurate.”
“Ted is linking to misleading data,” Musk wrote.
Ted is linking to misleading data @CommunityNotes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022
Ted Lieu deleted this tweet after @elonmusk fact checked him. pic.twitter.com/0grMjuZmtj
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 26, 2022
Research scientist and ophthalmologist Dr. Houman David Hemmati also blasted Lieu, urging him to be more open to “opposing views.”
“@Tedlieu is very well meaning but as his constituent I know that he’s gotten sucked into an echo chamber of voices that parrot the same information,” Hemmati tweeted. “It’s why I urge him to diversify the circle he engages with. Listen to opposing views. Be open to learning. It’ll earn more respect.”
Zweig’s “Twitter Files” release showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations were involved in pressuring Twitter to adopt a specific COVID narrative. And Twitter was not the only Big Tech company involved, he added.
“It wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others,” he said, attaching a screenshot of the companies involved.
