Samantha Hill’s crazed COVID-19 spaghetti chart looks like something out of an It’s Always Sunny meme—with blame for everyone from Steve Bannon to seafood export companies. But the intricate conspiracy isn’t an organic act of lunacy. Instead, the content and fake accounts pushing it are linked to a known pro-China disinformation outfit that’s looking to blame both the U.S. and Gilead, maker of a popular COVID-19 drug, for the global coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook says the fake accounts found by The Daily Beast are linked to a previous effort by sock puppets to attack the Chinese Communist Party’s adversaries and spread myths about the origin of the coronavirus. So what’s behind this latest attempt to hoodwink social media users about where COVID-19 came from and the drugmaker helping to fight it?
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