Facebook bans Russian network for claiming vax will turn humans into chimps

Facebook has banned hundreds of accounts which shared links with Russian disinformation network that claimed Covid19 vaccines developed by drugmakers Pfizer and AstraZeneca can turn people into chimpanzeesThe network originated in Russia and targeted users primarily in India Latin America and in the USFacebook investigation found that the antiCovid vaccine campaign is linked to Fazze a subsidiary of a UKregistered marketing firm whose operations were primarily conducted from Russia the social media giant stated in its Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour Report released on TuesdayWe removed 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against foreign interference which is coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a foreign entity This network operated across over a dozen platforms and forums but failed to build an audience Our investigation found links between this campaign and Fazze Fazze is now banned from our platform said Ben Nimmo Global IO Threat Intelligence Lead and the IO Threat Intelligence Team at Facebook in the reportAlso read UNICEF Facebook building safer online experiences for childrenThe disinformation network first posted memes and comments in November and December 2020 claiming that the AstraZeneca Covid19 vaccine would turn people into chimpanzees It then remained inactiveAfter a gap of five months in May 2021 it surfaced again and questioned the safety of the Pfizer vaccine by posting an allegedly hacked and leaked AstraZeneca documentBoth phases coincided with periods when a number of governments including in Latin America India and the United States were reportedly discussing the emergency authorizations for these respective vaccines Nimmo saidFacebook investigation showed that the campaign created misleading articles and petitions on multiple forums including Reddit Medium Changeorg and Medapplycouk It then used fake accounts on social media including Facebook and Instagram to seed and amplify this offplatform content using crude spammy tacticsBut the campaign aimed at engaging influencers with preexisting audiences on Instagram YouTube and TikTok to post content and use particular hashtags without disclosing the origin of the postsThe Instagram activity on the other hand was crude and spammy and was centered around a handful of hashtags AstraZenecakills and AstraZenecalies stopAstraZeneca Between December 14 and December 21 about 10000 posts that included the operations hashtags were made often with links to the operations offplatform articles Facebook saidThe campaign used fake accounts some of which Facebook says probably originated from account farms in Bangladesh and Pakistan The sloppy campaign also mixed languages such as posting Hindi language memes accompanied by hashtags in Portuguese it addedOur teams continue to focus on finding and removing deceptive campaigns around the world whether they are foreign or domestic We know that influence operations will keep evolving in response to our enforcement and new deceptive behaviours will emerge Facebook said in the reportWe are making progress rooting out this abuse but as weve said before its an ongoing effort and were committed to continually improving to stay ahead it addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever