Sean Gallup
Opera, one of the world’s major browser developers based in Norway but owned by China’s Golden Brick Capital private equity fund, said it has banned Bill Gyado, an author notorious for spreading disinformation about U.S. politics and American science, from creating content on its news platform after an investigation by The Daily Beast revealed his activities formed part of a Russian troll operation created in Africa to target America. “Based on your report and subsequent investigation, Bill Gyado was removed from the platform last week,” Scot Eritemu, Opera’s product manager, wrote in an email to The Daily Beast on Monday. “That account is no longer valid. The creator no longer has access to the account. And the articles are no longer discoverable in recommendations.”
For months, Gyado used Opera NewsHub, an online media platform that helps authors and bloggers create content and share it with a user base of more than 360 million users globally, to publish misinformation about U.S. Democrats, including suggesting Joe Biden would expand the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices once he’s sworn in as president and would force countries in Africa to adopt rulings made by the court in the same way former President Barack Obama pressured African nations to legalize gay marriage. He also published misinformation about Western-initiated coronavirus treatments while promoting Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.