China has released a propaganda video on YouTube titled Once Upon a Virus that touts the Communist dictatorship’s handling of the coronavirus while portraying the United States as incompetent and slow to respond.
Once Upon a Virus appears to be a production of China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency. The animated video, which was uploaded earlier this week and clocks in at just under two minutes, paints the Communist party and the World Health Organization in a positive light while depicting the U.S. as hypocritical and irresponsible.
The video is the latest effort in Beijing’s disinformation campaign seeking to conceal its responsibility in the spreading of the Wuhan coronavirus around the world.
ProPublica recently published an investigative report on the Communist regime’s army of fake and hijacked Twitter accounts that it is using to try to sway public opinion surrounding the coronavirus. The Wall Street Journal ran its own report outlining how Twitter and Facebook have allowed China to flood their platforms with posts disparaging American efforts to stop the Chinese virus pandemic, as well as posting misinformation about the Wuhan coronavirus itself.
Breitbart News recently reported that Chinese state media have been flooding Facebook and Instagram with undisclosed political ads blaming President Donald Trump for the Wuhan coronavirus. Facebook said in a statement that it was an “error” that the ads were not classified as political and is correcting them.
It remains unclear if Beijing’s new YouTube video violates the Google-owned platform’s policies on disinformation and fake news. YouTube doesn’t appear to prohibit state-sponsored propaganda, but the platform announced in 2018 that it would start labeling videos that come from state-funded media outlets.
Once Upon a Virus features such a label, warning YouTube users that “Xinhua is funded in whole or in part by the Chinese government.”
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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