“Free speech is the foundation upon which a free society is built and when freedom of speech is taken away, society is no longer actually free. In the free world, free speech has been a right protected regardless of the truthfulness of the speech itself. The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it is partnering with social media giants to ‘flag and take down’ ‘misinformation’ regarding the coronavirus pandemic. ABC 7 reports, ‘There is a flow of misinformation online about the virus, which health officials are calling an infodemic and they are mounting a concerted effort to combat it. Andy Pattison, the manager of digital solutions at WHO, says this could well be the first global infodemic. The WHO is working directly with tech companies on a daily basis to flag and take down bad information, and to ensure that facts from reliable sources get to users first’ (‘How COVID-19 infodemic is infecting the internet with false information,’ ABC7news.com, Mar. 6, 2020). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted in a comment on Facebook recently, ‘Given the developing situation, we’re working with national ministries of health and organizations like the WHO, CDC and UNICEF to help them get out timely, accurate information on the coronavirus. We’re also focused on stopping hoaxes and harmful misinformation.’ While there certainly is a plethora of false information being widely disseminated around social media, a free society has the obligation to allow it, protect the right to it, and to combat it with true information. The fact that a world government organization is partnering with social media to limit the information that they alone deem ‘false’ or ‘misleading’ should raise the hairs on everyone’s necks. This isn’t protecting the public, it’s harming people. It’s outright tyranny on a global scale.”
“World Health Organization,” Reformation Charlotte, Mar. 17, 2020