On Jan. 29, a news site doxxed a Chinese scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Claimed that the Wuhan coronavirus is a "weaponised version of the coronavirus"

ZeroHedge, a far-right financial news site, claimed that the novel coronavirus was released by Wuhan's Institute of Virology, a biohazard lab studying "the world's most dangerous pathogens".

The site claimed that the Wuhan coronavirus is "a weaponized version of the coronavirus".

However, ZeroHedge did not provide supporting evidence to back up this allegation.

In addition, the site also explicitly named one of their researchers, an immunology expert who is supposedly studying how and why bats can be infected with viruses such as Ebola, SARS and Coronavirus, and not get sick.

ZeroHedge stated:

"If anyone wants to find out what really caused the coronavirus pandemic that has infected thousands of people in China and around the globe, they should probably pay [the Chinese scientist] a visit.”

His full name, photo, email address and number were published alongside their claims.

Account suspended

Following the article, ZeroHedge's Twitter account was suspended on Friday (Jan. 31), according to BuzzFeed News.

A spokesperson for Twitter told BuzzFeed News that the account was "permanently suspended for violating (their) platform manipulation policy."

On Feb. 1, Zerohedge also confirmed that they received a notification from Twitter saying that their account had violated rules "against abuse and harassment".

Unlikely to be bioweapon

Following the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus globally, there have been some theories being circulated online -- such as the idea of the coronavirus as a bioweapon.

Buzzfeed News reported that Brandon J. Brown, an associate professor who is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said that this is unlikely to be true given its fatality rate.

He was quoted saying:

“The fatality rate [of the coronavirus] is 200/10,000, which is currently lower compared to many other viruses including SARS, so if it was meant as a bioweapon, it is not a good one...So let's debunk the bioweapon idea that we are seeing in the news.”

Top photo via Weibo, Wuhan Institute of Virology