Topline
Facebook banned hundreds of accounts that used social media influencers to spread false rumors about coronavirus vaccines, the company said Tuesday, months after the Russia-based scheme was first exposed — as health experts warn viral anti-vaccine misinformation is hampering efforts to get people immunized against Covid-19.
Key Facts
In a Tuesday report, Facebook detailed a “disinformation laundromat” in which false information about Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s vaccines was planted online, spread via social media and amplified by influencers with pre-existing audiences.
The company responded by shutting down more than 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts and banning a purportedly Russia-based marketing firm called Fazze, which was accused of trying to recruit influencers to spread misinformation earlier this year.
The campaign first surfaced in late 2020, Facebook said: It used articles, petitions and “crude and spammy” social media posts to boost conspiracy theories about the AstraZeneca vaccine, including a claim that the vaccine turns patients into chimpanzees.
The effort went dormant in late December but re-emerged in May to inaccurately claim Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is plagued by a high mortality rate.
This gambit primarily targeted people in India and Latin America, with a smaller presence in the United States, but Facebook says it ultimately “failed to build an audience”: The campaign’s online petitions fizzled with fewer than 1,000 signatures, and many of...
Read Full Story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/08/10/facebook-shuts-down-effort-to-spread-vaccine-disinfo-using-social-media-influencers/
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