Why does the world need the JMIR? The Internet – and more specifically, the World-Wide-Web – has an impact on many areas of medicine – broadly we can divide them into “clinical information and telemedicine”, “medical education and information exchange” and “consumer health informatics”:

• First, Internet protocols are used for clinical information and communication. In the future, Internet technology will be the platform for many telemedical applications.
• Second, the Internet revolutionizes the gathering, access and dissemination of non-clinical information in medicine: Bibliographic and factual databases are now world-wide accessible via graphical user interfaces, epidemiological and public health information can be gathered using the Internet, and increasingly the Internet is used for interactive medical education applications.
• Third, the Internet plays an important role for consumer health education, health promotion and teleprevention. (As an aside, it should be emphasized that “health education” on the Internet goes beyond the traditional model of health education, where a medical professional teaches the patient: On the Internet, much “health education” is done “consumer-to-consumer” by means of patient self support groups organizing in cyberspace. These patient-to-patient interchanges are becoming an important part of healthcare and are redefining the traditional model of preventive medicine and health promotion).

Sources:

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  JMIR Publications.
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  August 11, 1999. Gunther Eysenbach. “Welcome to the Journal of Medical Internet Research.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 1 (1): e649.
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  August 28, 2001. G. Eysenbach. “Journal of Medical Internet Research Is Now Indexed in Medline.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 3 (3): e843.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3.3.e25.
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Related:

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  TrendMD.
  https://trendmd.com/.
  Business.
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  “TrendMD – Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding.” Crunchbase.
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Infodemiology can be defined as the science of distribution and determinants of information in an electronic medium, specifically the Internet, or in a population, with the ultimate aim to inform public health and public policy. Infodemiology data can be collected and analyzed in near real time. Examples for infodemiology applications include: the analysis of queries from Internet search engines to predict disease outbreaks (eg. influenza); monitoring peoples’ status updates on microblogs such as Twitter for syndromic surveillance; detecting and quantifying disparities in health information availability; identifying and monitoring of public health relevant publications on the Internet (eg. anti-vaccination sites, but also news articles or expert-curated outbreak reports); automated tools to measure information diffusion and knowledge translation, and tracking the effectiveness of health marketing campaigns. Moreover, analyzing how people search and navigate the Internet for health-related information, as well as how they communicate and share this information, can provide valuable insights into health-related behavior of populations.

Sources:

• 
  December 15, 2002. Gunther Eysenbach. “Infodemiology: The Epidemiology of (Mis)Information.” The American Journal of Medicine 113 (9): 763–65.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9343(02)01473-0.
  Research Journal.
• 
  March 27, 2009. Gunther Eysenbach. “Infodemiology and Infoveillance: Framework for an Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics Methods to Analyze Search, Communication and Publication Behavior on the Internet.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 11 (1): e1157.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1157.
  Research Journal.
• 
  January 17, 2014. Hua Gu, Bin Chen, Honghong Zhu, Tao Jiang, Xinyi Wang, Lei Chen, Zhenggang Jiang, Dawei Zheng, and Jianmin Jiang. “Importance of Internet Surveillance in Public Health Emergency Control and Prevention: Evidence From a Digital Epidemiologic Study During Avian Influenza A H7N9 Outbreaks.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 16 (1): e2911.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2911.
  Research Journal.
• 
  March 4, 2013. Julie M. Robillard, Louise Whiteley, Thomas Wade Johnson, Jonathan Lim, Wyeth W. Wasserman, and Judy Illes. “Utilizing Social Media to Study Information-Seeking and Ethical Issues in Gene Therapy.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 15 (3): e2313.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2313.
  Research Journal.
• 
  “Infodemiology.” In Wikipedia.
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  Reference.

See also, on this site:

• Gunther Eysenbach founds the Journal of Medical Internet Research

Abstract

Background
Syndromic surveillance uses health-related data that precede diagnosis and signal a sufficient probability of a case or an outbreak to warrant further public health response.

Objective
While most syndromic surveillance systems rely on data from clinical encounters with health professionals, I started to explore in 2004 whether analysis of trends in Internet searches can be useful to predict outbreaks such as influenza epidemics and prospectively gathered data on Internet search trends for this purpose.

Results
There is an excellent correlation between the number of clicks on a keyword-triggered link in Google with epidemiological data from the flu season 2004/2005 in Canada (Pearson correlation coefficient of current week clicks with the following week influenza cases r=.91). The “Google ad sentinel method” proved to be more timely, more accurate and – with a total cost of Can$365.64 for the entire flu-season – considerably cheaper than the traditional method of reports on influenza-like illnesses observed in clinics by sentinel physicians.

Conclusion
Systematically collecting and analyzing health information demand data from the Internet has considerable potential to be used for syndromic surveillance. Tracking web searches on the Internet has the potential to predict population-based events relevant for public health purposes, such as real outbreaks, but may also be confounded by “epidemics of fear”. Data from such “infodemiology studies” should also include longitudinal data on health information supply.

Sources:

• 
  2006. Gunther Eysenbach. “Infodemiology: Tracking Flu-Related Searches on the Web for Syndromic Surveillance.” AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings 2006: 244–48.
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1839505/.
  National Institutes of Health.
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  “Public Health Surveillance.” In Wikipedia.
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  Reference.

Related:

• 
  “Google Flu Trends.” In Wikipedia.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_Flu_Trends.
  Reference.
  Google Flu Trends (GFT) was first launched in 2008 by Google.org to help predict outbreaks of flu. GFT stopped publishing current estimates on 9 August 2015.

“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous” – WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Munich Security Conference on Feb 15, 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an infodemic as “an over-abundance of information, some accurate and some not that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.

The WHO strategy to control an infodemic includes these four pillars:

First Pillar: Facilitate Accurate Knowledge Translation
Second Pillar: Knowledge Refinement, Filtering, and Fact-Checking
Third pillar: Build eHealth Literacy
Fourth Pillar: Monitoring, Infodemiology, Infoveillance, and Social Listening

Meanwhile, scientists also monitor social media for clues about how drugs are faring.  “Evidence from the real world is valuable, as clinical trials often enroll patients who aren’t representative of the general population. We learn more about drug safety from real-world evidence and can adjust clinical recommendations to balance risk and benefits.” (WSJ)  This real-world evidence includes social media posting.  And yet, the aggressive fact-checking and censorship of anything negative to the vaccines including reports of personal experiences is removing signals that warn scientists of problems.

Sources:

• 
  February 15, 2020. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Munich Security Conference.” World Health Organization.
  https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/munich-security-conference.
  World Health Organization.
  This is the transcript of the speech.
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  February 15, 2020. “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 86.” World Health Organization.
  https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200415-sitrep-86-covid-19.pdf.
  World Health Organization, PDF.
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  February 6, 2020. Matt Richtel. “W.H.O. Fights a Pandemic Besides Coronavirus: An ‘Infodemic.’” The New York Times, sec. Health.
  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/health/coronavirus-misinformation-social-media.html.
  News.
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  February 13, 2020. Zoe Thomas. “WHO Says Fake Coronavirus Claims Causing ‘Infodemic.’” BBC News, sec. Technology.
  https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51497800.
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  February 4, 2020. Chia-Yi Hou. “WHO Warns of Coronavirus ‘infodemic’ — an Epidemic of Too Much Information.” TheHill.
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  News.
• 
  June 26, 2020. Gunther Eysenbach. “How to Fight an Infodemic: The Four Pillars of Infodemic Management.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22 (6): e21820.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/21820.
  Research Journal.
• 
  June 26, 2020. Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Neville Calleja, Tim Nguyen, Tina Purnat, Marcelo D’Agostino, Sebastian Garcia-Saiso, Mark Landry, et al. “Framework for Managing the COVID-19 Infodemic: Methods and Results of an Online, Crowdsourced WHO Technical Consultation.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22 (6): e19659.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/19659.
  Research Journal.

Related:

• 
  April 9, 2020. Jose Yunam Cuan-Baltazar, Maria José Muñoz-Perez, Carolina Robledo-Vega, Maria Fernanda Pérez-Zepeda, and Elena Soto-Vega. “Misinformation of COVID-19 on the Internet: Infodemiology Study.” JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 6 (2): e18444.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/18444.
  Research Journal.
• 
  February 15, 2021. Bin Chen, Xinyi Chen, Jin Pan, Kui Liu, Bo Xie, Wei Wang, Ying Peng, Fei Wang, Na Li, and Jianmin Jiang. “Dissemination and Refutation of Rumors During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Infodemiology Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 23 (2): e22427.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/22427.
  Research Journal.
• 
  December 15, 2020. Elaine Okanyene Nsoesie, Nina Cesare, Martin Müller, and Al Ozonoff. “COVID-19 Misinformation Spread in Eight Countries: Exponential Growth Modeling Study.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22 (12): e24425.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/24425.
  Research Journal.
• 
  August 25, 2020. Alessandro Rovetta, and Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula. “Global Infodemiology of COVID-19: Analysis of Google Web Searches and Instagram Hashtags.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22 (8): e20673.
  https://doi.org/10.2196/20673.
  Research Journal.
• 
  June 22, 2021. Joseph A. Ladapo and Harvey A. Risch. “Opinion | Are Covid Vaccines Riskier Than Advertised?” Wall Street Journal, sec. Opinion.
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-covid-vaccines-riskier-than-advertised-11624381749.
  News.

See also, on this site:

• The term “infodemiology” is coined

Objectives:

• Understand the multidisciplinary nature of infodemic management;
• Identify current examples and tools to understand, measure and control infodemics;
• Build a public health research agenda to direct focus and investment in this emerging scientific field; and
• Establish a community of practice and research.

— WHO

Sources:

• 
  June 30 – July 16, 2020 “1st WHO Infodemiology Conference.” World Health Organization.
  https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/06/30/default-calendar/1st-who-infodemiology-conference.
  World Health Organization.
• 
  Infodemiology Scientific Conference Booklet.
  https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/epi-win/infodemic-management/infodemiology-scientific-conference-booklet.pdf.
  World Health Organization, PDF.

33. Another example of human bias run amok was the reaction to this tweet by Trump. Many Trump tweets led to extensive internal debates, and this one was no different.

34. In a surreal exchange, Jim Baker, at the time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, asks why telling people to not be afraid wasn’t a violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.

35. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety, had to explain that optimism wasn’t misinformation.

— David Zweig

Sources:

• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig [@davidzweig]. “1. THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE – By Censoring Info That Was True but Inconvenient to U.S. Govt. Policy – By Discrediting Doctors and Other Experts Who Disagreed – By Suppressing Ordinary Users, Including Some Sharing the CDC’s *own Data*.” Tweet. Twitter.
  https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607378386338340867.
  Social Media.
• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig [@davidzweig]. “33. Another Example of Human Bias Run Amok Was the Reaction to This Tweet by Trump. Many Trump Tweets Led to Extensive Internal Debates, and This One Was No Different. Https://T.Co/KQs1ADPVAk.” Tweet. Twitter.
  https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607389968678125577.
  Social Media.
• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig [@davidzweig]. “34. In a Surreal Exchange, Jim Baker, at the Time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, Asks Why Telling People to Not Be Afraid Wasn’t a Violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 Misinformation Policy. Https://T.Co/SxvOKcvaT7.” Tweet. Twitter.
  https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607390165370109953.
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• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig [@davidzweig]. “35. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Former Head of Trust & Safety, Had to Explain That Optimism Wasn’t Misinformation. Https://T.Co/1pj8uvzWR1.” Tweet. Twitter.
  https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607390483696979968.
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  University.

See also, on this site:

• Doctor Wants To Be ‘Scary To The Public’ And Inflate COVID Numbers

It appears that the enemy won this particular battle.  The censorship is thorough with the domain blocked from a popular archive site.

Today, I have the most important announcement in the quarter of a century history of this newsletter. My goal and passion has always been about supporting you and helping you take control of your health. I am beyond thrilled that there are tens of millions of people who have benefited from what I have shared over the years.

I am filled with joy and gratitude every time I travel and lecture as invariably many people tell me how I’ve changed their lives by providing vital information they couldn’t find anywhere else and even better that was completely free.

These were the times when many of the views I presented were criticized, but that’s to be expected. That was one of the great freedoms we enjoyed. We could have different views and we could speak openly about these views without fear of retribution.

But we are now in a different time. A much darker time. The silence of free speech is now deafening.

Not only is blatant censorship tolerated, it is being encouraged by the very people who were to be entrusted with protecting our freedom of speech.

We are not living from the lessons we’ve learned before. Never in my life, would I believe the sitting President of the United States call out 12 Americans in a McCarthyism like attack in the United States. As you are aware, I was placed at the top of this list.

The last week has brought a tremendous amount of reflections to me, and a lot of unacceptable threats to a company full of amazing people that have helped me support you in this journey.

By now I am sure you know that there was a recent NY Times article attacking me and it was one of the most widely distributed stories in the world. The article was loaded with false statements made about me and my organization.

The report would be laughed at if it were to be submitted for peer review, the groups that created it are funded by dark money and operated by an illegal foreign agent. The press never questioned it, but ran with their orders from above.

I can deal with the CNN crews that chase me by car while I bicycle from my home. I feel sorry for the people in media that have to follow the orders they are given.

It is easy to dismiss the media pawns, but the most powerful individual on the planet has targeted me as his primary obstacle that must be removed. Every three letter agency is at his disposal, and the executive powers have grown beyond what an individual American’s rights can protect against.

A dissenter of medical mandates is now a target and obstacle to be removed. I know – that’s 25 years’ worth of blood, sweat and tears coming down.

I can hardly believe these words are coming out of my mouth. It’s a testament of just how radical things have degenerated in the recent past. However, I will continue to publish new articles, BUT going forward, each article I publish will be available for only 48 hours and will then be removed from the website.

We are at the crossroad where change is unavoidable. We all must make choices that determine our future. To many, this looks like a war … but what we need to find is peace. I am going to find peace through this sacrifice.

Just to be clear, ALL my content will be removed. This includes articles on:

• Great Reset
• General nutrition
• The coronavirus
• My interviews with experts

These will be removed to appease the individuals in power who have an arsenal of overwhelming tools at their disposal, and are actively engaged in using them. COVID-19 has activated and authorized emergency powers that have weakened our constitutional rights. Sadly, cyberwarfare and authoritarian forces are beyond our abilities to withstand, and this is now our only way forward.

Over 15,000 articles full of vital information that has helped tens of millions across the world take control of their health, will be removed. There was a time when people could debate and respect each other freely. That time is now gone. I believe laws are best applied like medicine – locally and specifically.

Local food, local democracy – our local community strength is the best way to achieve peace moving forward, and to stop authoritarian technocracy. I also believe we are at our strongest when we can care and maintain respect for each other. This is how we can make our most important decisions in life.

Again I will still be writing my daily articles that I started 25 years ago BUT they will only be available for 48 hours before they are removed. In this way I hope to continue my mission to help you take control of your health – but it’s up to you to download, share and repost this content. I will not be enforcing my copyright on this information so that you may freely share it.

Please also encourage others to read “The Truth About COVID-19,” where you will find much of the information from the past two years that people need to read to wake up and open their eyes. I am donating all earnings to the National Vaccine Information Center.

I want to thank all of you that have supported me over the years. I hope you can understand why I have decided to make this dramatic decision and hope the remaining ephemeral articles will be useful for those who wish to read them.

We will continue through these challenging times together, and remember this:

Your body was designed to stay healthy.

You hold in your hands the power to take control of your health.

Never let anyone take your right to health away from you.

Sources:

• 
  August 4, 2021. Joseph Mercola. “Why I Am Deleting All Content After 48 Hours.” Mercola.
  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/08/04/why-im-deleting-all-content-after-48-hours.aspx.
  News.
• 
  August 4, 2021. Mercola. Dr. Mercola- Why I Am Deleting All Content After 48 Hours. Runtime: 5:45.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dILSt_EQgNM.
  Video.

Related:

• 
  “Albert Einstein Quote.” Lib Quotes.
  https://libquotes.com/albert-einstein/quote/lbu6g6f.
  Reference.
  100% Sourced Quotes.

Facebook is a private company, so it can censor whomever it wants. But what Facebook is doing lately is just sleazy.

Recently, I sued them because they defamed me. They, along with one of their “fact-checkers,” a group called Science Feedback, lied about me and continue to lie about me.

Now Facebook has responded to my lawsuit in court.

— John Stossel

Sources:

• 
  December 14, 2021. “Facebook Admits the Truth: ‘Fact Checks’ Are Really Just (Lefty) Opinion.” New York Post.
  https://nypost.com/2021/12/14/facebook-admits-the-truth-fact-checks-are-really-just-lefty-opinion/.
  News.
• 
  May 14, 2021. John Tierney. “This Article Is ‘Partly False’: Supposedly Engaged in a Struggle against Misinformation, Facebook and Its Fact-Checking Partner Spread Their Own.” City Journal.
  https://www.city-journal.org/facebook-and-its-fact-checkers-spread-misinformation.
  News.
• 
  December 13, 2021. John Stossel. “Here’s Where the ‘Facts’ about Me Lie — Facebook Bizarrely Claims Its ‘Fact-Checks’ Are ‘Opinion.’” New York Post.
  https://nypost.com/2021/12/13/facebook-bizarrely-claims-its-misquote-is-opinion/.
  News.

This document provides immunization programmes and other stakeholders with step-by-step guidance on how to effectively manage the communication response to vaccine-related events, particularly those with a potentially high impact on public trust, which are therefore considered to be a vaccine crisis.

— Vaccine Crisis Communication Manual

In other words, this document is about how to maintain public trust in a vaccine program when a reason to not trust it has developed.  The reason could be valid.  Vaccine-related events can include new critical scientific studies, social media stories, or critical media reports.  Policies such as these have resulted in the censorship of top experts who were trying to warn the masses of potential dangers.

It’s a crisis that the truth is coming out.

— Maria Zeee

Sources:

• 
  February 21, 2022. “Vaccine Crisis Communication Manual: Step-by-Step Guidance for National Immunization Programmes.” World Health Organization Europe.
  https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/WHO-EURO-2022-3471-43230-60590.
  World Health Organization.
• 
  February 21, 2022. “VACCINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANUAL: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDANCE FOR NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMMES.” World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.
  https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/352029/WHO-EURO-2022-3471-43230-60590-eng.pdf.
  World Health Organization, PDF.
• 
  January 13, 2023. Maria Zeee. Maria Zeee Uncensored: WHO’s Vaccine Brainwashing Document EXPOSED!!! Cyber COVID Preparedness. Stew Peters Network. Runtime: 40:19.
  https://rumble.com/v25d09n-live-8-uncensored-whos-vaccine-brainwashing-document-exposed-cyber-covid-pr.html.
  Video.

Related:

• Twitter releases its COVID thread

This thread shows that Twitter censorship included suppression of data from governments that contradicted the official narrative.

1. THREAD:
THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE
– By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy
– By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed
– By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*

2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.

3. What we have yet to cover is Covid. This reporting, for The Free Press, @thefp, is one piece of that important story.

4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.

5. Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for @thefp showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.

6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores.

7. It wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.

8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson:

9. In the summer of 2021, president Biden said social media companies were “killing people” for allowing vaccine misinformation. Berenson was suspended hours after Biden’s comments, and kicked off the platform the following month.

10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/jesse-jackson-cant-swim

11. A December 2022 summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s Head of U.S. Public Policy, adds new evidence of the White House’s pressure campaign, and cements that it repeatedly attempted to directly influence the platform.

12. Culbertson wrote that the Biden team was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more.

13. Twitter executives did not fully capitulate to the Biden team’s wishes. An extensive review of internal communications at the company revealed employees often debating moderation cases in great detail, and with more care than was shown by the government toward free speech.

14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.

15. There were three serious problems with Twitter’s process: First, much of the content moderation was conducted by bots, trained on machine learning and AI – impressive in their engineering, yet still too crude for such nuanced work.

16. Second, contractors, in places like the Philippines, also moderated content. They were given decision trees to aid in the process, but tasking non experts to adjudicate tweets on complex topics like myocarditis and mask efficacy data was destined for a significant error rate

17 Third, most importantly, the buck stopped with higher level employees at Twitter who chose the inputs for the bots and decision trees, and subjectively decided escalated cases and suspensions. As it is with all people and institutions, there was individual and collective bias

18. With Covid, this bias bent heavily toward establishment dogmas.

19. Inevitably, dissident yet legitimate content was labeled as misinformation, and the accounts of doctors and others were suspended both for tweeting opinions and demonstrably true information.

20. Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter.

21. Internal emails show an “intent to action” by a moderator, saying Kulldorff’s tweet violated the company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy and claimed he shared “false information.”

22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.

23. After Twitter took action, Kulldorff’s tweet was slapped with a “Misleading” label and all replies and likes were shut off, throttling the tweet’s ability to be seen and shared by many people, the ostensible core function of the platform:

24. In my review of internal files, I found countless instances of tweets labeled as “misleading” or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views.

25. A tweet by @KelleyKga, a self-proclaimed public health fact checker, with 18K followers, was flagged as “Misleading,” and replies and likes disabled, even though it displayed the CDC’s *own data.*

26. Internal records showed that a bot had flagged the tweet, and that it received many “tattles” (what the system amusingly called reports from users). That triggered a manual review by a human who– despite the tweet showing actual CDC data–nevertheless labeled it “Misleading”

27. Tellingly, the tweet by @KelleyKga that was labeled “Misleading” was a reply to a tweet that contained actual misinformation.

Covid has never been the leading cause of death from disease in children. Yet that tweet remains on the platform, and without a “misleading” label.

28. Whether by humans or algorithms, content that was contrarian but true was still subject to getting flagged or suppressed

This tweet was labeled “Misleading,” even though the owner of this account, @_euzebiusz_, a physician, was referring to the results of a published study

29. Andrew Bostom, a Rhode Island physician, was permanently suspended from Twitter after receiving multiple strikes for misinformation. One of his strikes was for a tweet referring to the results from a peer reviewed study on mRNA vaccines.

30. A review of Twitter log files revealed that an internal audit, conducted after Bostom’s attorney contacted Twitter, found that only 1 of Bostom’s 5 violations were valid.

31. The one Bostom tweet found to still be in violation cited data that was legitimate but inconvenient to the public health establishment’s narrative about the risks of flu versus Covid in children.

32. That this tweet was not only flagged by a bot, but its violation manually affirmed by a staff member is telling of both the algorithmic and human bias at play. Bostom’s account was suspended for months and was finally restored on Christmas Day.

33. Another example of human bias run amok was the reaction to this tweet by Trump. Many Trump tweets led to extensive internal debates, and this one was no different.

34. In a surreal exchange, Jim Baker, at the time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, asks why telling people to not be afraid wasn’t a violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.

35. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety, had to explain that optimism wasn’t misinformation.

36. Remember @KelleyKga with the CDC data tweet? Twitter’s response to her is clarifying: “we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission.”

37. Twitter made a decision, via the political leanings of senior staff, and govt pressure, that the public health authorities’ approach to the pandemic – prioritizing mitigation over other concerns – was “The Science” . . .

38. Information that challenged that view, such as showing harms of vaccines, or that could be perceived as downplaying the risks of Covid, especially to children, was subject to moderation, and even suppression. No matter whether such views were correct or adopted abroad.

39. What might this pandemic and its aftermath have looked like if there had been a more open debate on Twitter and other social media platforms—not to mention the mainstream press—about the origins of Covid, about lockdowns, about the true risks of Covid in kids, and much more?

40. Thanks to @ShellenbergerMD, @lwoodhouse, @lhfang and the team @thefp for their help reporting this story.

41. An expanded version of this thread is available now @thefp!

How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate

— David Zweig

The thread includes 41 posts in total, with images of the evidence.

And there’s more to come:

Sources:

• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig [@davidzweig]. “1. THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE – By Censoring Info That Was True but Inconvenient to U.S. Govt. Policy – By Discrediting Doctors and Other Experts Who Disagreed – By Suppressing Ordinary Users, Including Some Sharing the CDC’s *own Data*.” Tweet. Twitter.
  https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607378386338340867.
  Social Media.
• 
  December 26, 2022. David Zweig. “How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate.” The Free Press.
  https://www.thefp.com/p/how-twitter-rigged-the-covid-debate.
  General Website Link.
• 
  August 22, 2022. Alex Berenson. “Jesse Jackson Can’t Swim*.” Substack newsletter. Unreported Truths.
  https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/jesse-jackson-cant-swim.
  Blog.
• 
  December 26, 2022. John Hugh DeMastri. “Ex-FBI Twitter Lawyer Questioned Why Trump Wasn’t Censored Over ‘Optimistic’ COVID Tweet, Docs Show.” Daily Caller.
  https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/26/twitter-lawyer-censor-trump-covid-tweet/.
  News.

Related:

• 
  December 26, 2022. Michael P Senger [@MichaelPSenger]. “THREAD – Nuremberg 2: What a Real Inquiry into the Response to COVID Would Look Like Given the Magnitude of the Harm That’s Been Done, the Public Deserves to Know Exactly Who Knew and Did What, When, and Why in the Days Leading up to the Lockdowns of Spring 2020 and beyond. 1/ Https://T.Co/RT49SopXba.” Tweet. Twitter. https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1607425359229890560.
  Social Media.

See also, on this site:

• The US Supreme Court rules against government censorship of the press
• Alex Berenson suspended for reporting Pfizer results
• Twitter permanently suspends Alex Berenson over coronavirus tweets