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August 16, 2021 11:34 am

Russia-Linked Ad Agency Smeared Vaccines Using Hundreds of Fake Instagram Accounts

An anonymous reader shared this report from NBC News:Facebook said Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was traced back to Fazze, an advertising and marketing firm working in Russia on behalf of an unknown client. The network used fake accounts to spread misleading claims that disparaged the safety of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. One claimed AstraZeneca's shot would turn a person into a chimpanzee. The fake accounts targeted audiences in India, Latin America and, to a lesser extent, the U.S., using several social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram. Russia has been actively marketing its Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, abroad in what some analysts see as an effort to score geopolitical points... The Fazze network also contacted social media influencers in several countries with offers to pay them for reposting the misleading content. That ploy backfired when influencers in Germany and France exposed the network's offer.... Facebook investigators say some influencers did post the material, but later deleted it when stories about Fazze's work began to emerge. The article also summarizes reporting from the Associated Press about the offers received by those YouTube influencers. It "urged influencers not to mention that they were being paid, and also suggested they criticize the media's reporting on vaccines."

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