Facebook removed 65 of its own and 243 Instagram accounts for spreading misinformation about AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, according to the social media giant’s July Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report.

The report found the misinformation network was tied to Fazze, a subsidiary of a U.K.-registered marketing firm, but operations were conducted in Russia. It targeted users in India, Latin America and to a lesser extent the U.S.

In November 2020, the network began posting blogs and petitions claiming AstraZeneca manipulated its vaccine trial and used untested technology to create the shot. One month later, just as the Indian government was considering emergency authorization for the vaccine, the network began using fake accounts to post memes suggesting the vaccine could turn people into chimpanzees, often using images from Planet of the Apes.

The report said the Facebook activity “received few if any likes, and some were ridiculed by real people,” and called the Instagram posts “crude and spammy.” But the hashtags they used, like #AstraZenecakills and #AstraZenecalies and #stopAstraZeneca, were picked up by influencers.

“While possible, it appears highly unlikely that these influencers shared the operation’s work organically. Given the public reporting about this network's engagement with influencers in May, it is likely that the operation used similar tactics in December 2020 and asked unwitting people to amplify this campaign against AstraZeneca across social media platforms,” wrote the report's author Ben Nimmo, global IO threat intelligence lead at Facebook.

Then in May, as several targeted countries were in talks to expand the Pfizer vaccine to teens, the network began targeting Facebook Pages and Groups with misinformation that claimed the Pfizer vaccine had a higher “casualty rate” compared with other vaccine options.

The attempt to court influencers this time exposed the operation. French and German influencers posted Fazze’s attempts to get them to share the misinformation in exchange for money.

“This triggered a wave of open-source research that identified Fazze’s corporate ownership and the influencers they targeted,” wrote Nimmo. “In response, Fazze appears to have deleted most of its fake articles by the end of May, and its staff removed the references to Fazze from their social media bios.”

WHY IT MATTERS

Slightly more than half of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet vaccination remains the best way to prevent COVID-19 infection. A Kaiser Family Foundation review of state data found breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths are still very rare for the fully vaccinated. 

As the Delta variant spreads in the U.S., some hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Hospital leaders told Texas state lawmakers Tuesday that hospitals are struggling to manage the increase in cases and maintain their workforces.

“This crisis right now is really driving us to a place where it is really unsustainable,” said Dr. Joseph Chang, chief medical officer at Parkland Health and Hospital System.

THE LARGER TREND

Facebook has received a wave of criticism for allowing misinformation to spread on its social media platforms, and the company vowed to curb COVID-19 falsehoods at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Last month, Facebook blocked #VaccinesKill, instead sending users to a page that reads “Posts with vaccineskill are temporarily hidden here. Some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.”

The social media giant also joined an alliance that will initially focus on how to use online platforms to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and launched a Vaccine Finder tool to help users look for vaccine appointments and information in their area.

In July, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that misinformation was threatening the country’s response to COVID-19 and urged technology and social media companies to take action.

"As surgeon general, my job is to help people stay safe and healthy, and without limiting the spread of health misinformation, American lives are at risk,” Murthy said in a statement.

“From the tech and social media companies who must do more to address the spread on their platforms, to all of us identifying and avoiding sharing misinformation, tackling this challenge will require an all-of-society approach, but it is critical for the long-term health of our nation."