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The Case of the Pfizer Influencer Disinformation Operation
A London-based PR agency that traces back to Moscow offered European influencers cash to attack brand-name vaccines.
A London-based PR agency offered French influencers cash to launder disinformation about the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines [1]. Information laundering is when the source of information is concealed by the messenger, like when US outlets publish stories for foreign state-controlled media outlets.
The agency asks them to claim the vaccinations falsely are responsible for hundreds of deaths and to urge others to “draw their own conclusions.”
A French YouTuber, Dirty Biology, who has 1.2 million subscribers, tweeted about the offer. For non-French-speaking readers, this translates to:
It’s strange. I received a partnership proposal which consists in breaking down the Pfizer vaccine on video. Colossal budget, client who wants to remain incognito and you have to hide the sponsorship. Ethics / 20. If you see any videos of it you’ll know it’s an op, then.
Additional tweets state:
I know this is bread and butter for conspirators, but hey it seems important to me to show that your favorite YouTubers / Tiktokers may be the spokespersons for what appears to be a trade dispute in this specific case (I guess)
Flemme to be the guy who validates a rotten thing thanks to the legitimacy of the SCIONCE. Cool partnerships with companies that do cool stuff, it turns out, you don’t have to work for shady stuff like that.
— @DirtyBiology
The French news site Numerama obtained a copy of the letter sent to influencers by a PR film Fazze, for an “incognito client.” The offer outlines talking points that appear to have been crafted to scare people away from the Pfizer vaccine.
Numerama was able to obtain the partnership request email and the brief offered to influencers by the agency named Fazze.
