Canadian clinical psychologist, self-help author and YouTuber Jordan Peterson has come under fire for sharing a pornographic tweet that made a false claim about the Chinese government this week.
The tweet, originally posted by Twitter user @songpinganq — who regularly tweets content critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — alleged that China runs sperm collection banks in which males lie next to each other while connected to a masturbatory “medical apparatus,” with an accompanying video showing the supposed sperm bank in action.
Peterson retweeted the content sometime later, writing, “Such fun in unbelievable techno-nightmare CCP hell.”
It did not take long before other Twitter users pointed out that the video actually came from a U.K.-based porn studio that produces fetish content. Even Peterson’s own daughter, podcaster Mikhaila Peterson, reportedly called out the post in a now-defunct tweet.
“Dad you can’t retweet this on Twitter. My eyes will never recover,” she wrote, as seen in screenshots.
Soon enough, @songpinganq apologized and confirmed that the video had in fact come from the U.K.
They said they originally found it on WeChat with claims that it was “China’s collection room for sperm bank.”
“Sorry. My mistake. I found this video on WeChat and they said this is China’s collection room for sperm bank. Turns out that this video is from [the] U.K.,” @songpinganq wrote.
While Peterson — who has since deleted his tweet — did not originally make the false claim, his apparent failure to fact-check easily put him under fire. The term “Chinese d*ck sucking factory” also began trending as users sarcastically criticized him for the blunder.
Peterson has not addressed the controversy as of Tuesday morning.
The “Chinese d*ck sucking factory” saga comes as the clinical psychologist faces disciplinary action from the College of Psychologists of Ontario for controversial statements he has made about women, masculinity and gender identity, among other topics.
The regulatory body ordered that he undergo a “remedial program,” but he refuses to do so.
“I can either stop or give up or accede to the demands or continue the fight. And I’m not stopping,” Peterson told CBC News in January.
He added, “I think I’ve done demonstrably more than any psychologist has ever produced to increase the prestige and trust of the practice of psychology around the world.”
