In its July 2021 “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report,” Facebook announced that it banned 63 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for spreading disinformation about Western coronavirus vaccines.
The flagged content included various memes about the supposed dangers of COVID-19 shots, especially AstraZeneca, and numerous comments posted elsewhere in English, Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese. The disinformation included images implying that a COVID-19 inoculation will turn you into a primate.
“Our investigation found links between this campaign and Fazze, a subsidiary of a UK-registered marketing firm, whose operations were primarily conducted from Russia. Fazze is now banned from our platform,” Facebook explained in its report.
The “monkey vaccine” memes from Fazze bear a striking resemblance to images included in a broadcast of Dmitry Kiselyov’s weekly news program on Russian state television in September, 2020.
Facebook report: Russian groups spread disinformation about Western covid vaccinesRead More
