YouTube Stars Were Offered Money to Spread Vaccine Misinformation (bbc.com) 255
"A mysterious marketing agency secretly offered to pay social media stars to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines," reports the BBC.
"Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them." An influencer marketing agency called Fazze offered to pay [Mirko Drotschmann, a German YouTuber and journalist] to promote what it said was leaked information that suggested the death rate among people who had the Pfizer vaccine was almost three times that of the AstraZeneca jab. The information provided wasn't true. It quickly became apparent to Mirko that he was being asked to spread disinformation to undermine public confidence in vaccines in the middle of a pandemic. "I was shocked," says Mirko "then I was curious, what's behind all that?" In France, science YouTuber Léo Grasset received a similar offer. The agency offered him 2000 euros if he would take part.
Fazze said it was acting for a client who wished to remain anonymous...
Both Léo and Mirko were appalled by the false claims. They pretended to be interested in order to try to find out more and were provided with detailed instructions about what they should say in their videos. In stilted English, the brief instructed them to "Act like you have the passion and interest in this topic." It told them not to mention the video had a sponsor — and instead pretend they were spontaneously giving advice out of concern for their viewers... Since Léo and Mirko blew the whistle at least four other influencers in France and Germany have gone public to reveal they also rejected Fazze's attempts to recruit them.
But German journalist, Daniel Laufer, has identified two influencers who may have taken up the offer.
But who's behind the mysterious influencer marketing agency? Fazze is a part of AdNow, which is a digital marketing company, registered in both Russia and the UK. The BBC has made multiple attempts to contact AdNow by phone, email and even a letter couriered to their Moscow headquarters, but they have not responded. Eventually we managed to contact Ewan Tolladay, one of two directors of the British arm of AdNow - who lives in Durham. Mr. Tolladay said he had very little to do with Fazze — which he said was a joint venture between his fellow director — a Russian man called Stanislav Fesenko — and another person whose identity he didn't know... Both the French and German authorities have launched investigations into Fazze's approaches to influencers. But the identity of the agency's mystery client remains unclear.
There has been speculation about the Russian connections to this scandal and the interests of the Russian state in promoting its own vaccine — Sputnik V.
French YouTuber Léo Grasset believes we'll see more attempts to manipulate public opinion, especially young people — apparently because it's incredibly easy.
"Just spend the same money on TikTok creators, YouTube creators," they tell the BBC. "The whole ecosystem is perfectly built for maximum efficiency of disinformation right now."
"Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them." An influencer marketing agency called Fazze offered to pay [Mirko Drotschmann, a German YouTuber and journalist] to promote what it said was leaked information that suggested the death rate among people who had the Pfizer vaccine was almost three times that of the AstraZeneca jab. The information provided wasn't true. It quickly became apparent to Mirko that he was being asked to spread disinformation to undermine public confidence in vaccines in the middle of a pandemic. "I was shocked," says Mirko "then I was curious, what's behind all that?" In France, science YouTuber Léo Grasset received a similar offer. The agency offered him 2000 euros if he would take part.
Fazze said it was acting for a client who wished to remain anonymous...
Both Léo and Mirko were appalled by the false claims. They pretended to be interested in order to try to find out more and were provided with detailed instructions about what they should say in their videos. In stilted English, the brief instructed them to "Act like you have the passion and interest in this topic." It told them not to mention the video had a sponsor — and instead pretend they were spontaneously giving advice out of concern for their viewers... Since Léo and Mirko blew the whistle at least four other influencers in France and Germany have gone public to reveal they also rejected Fazze's attempts to recruit them.
But German journalist, Daniel Laufer, has identified two influencers who may have taken up the offer.
But who's behind the mysterious influencer marketing agency? Fazze is a part of AdNow, which is a digital marketing company, registered in both Russia and the UK. The BBC has made multiple attempts to contact AdNow by phone, email and even a letter couriered to their Moscow headquarters, but they have not responded. Eventually we managed to contact Ewan Tolladay, one of two directors of the British arm of AdNow - who lives in Durham. Mr. Tolladay said he had very little to do with Fazze — which he said was a joint venture between his fellow director — a Russian man called Stanislav Fesenko — and another person whose identity he didn't know... Both the French and German authorities have launched investigations into Fazze's approaches to influencers. But the identity of the agency's mystery client remains unclear.
There has been speculation about the Russian connections to this scandal and the interests of the Russian state in promoting its own vaccine — Sputnik V.
French YouTuber Léo Grasset believes we'll see more attempts to manipulate public opinion, especially young people — apparently because it's incredibly easy.
"Just spend the same money on TikTok creators, YouTube creators," they tell the BBC. "The whole ecosystem is perfectly built for maximum efficiency of disinformation right now."
How many 'influencers' took the money (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How many 'influencers' took the money (Score:4, Interesting)
You know someone took the money. What sort of 'sponsorship' did they declare?
If they're on YouTube and failed to declare sponsorship, as asked, they are violating the YouTube terms of service and could lose their ability to monetize on the platform. If I were making a significant living on YouTube, there's no way I'd take that deal. Especially not for a measly $2k.
Re: (Score:3)
If they're on YouTube and failed to declare sponsorship, as asked, they are violating the YouTube terms of service and could
... have Google look at them sternly and maybe waggle their eyebrows a bit, because we all know how seriously Google takes ToS violations that don't affect their bottom line.
Re:Russia did it! Russia did it again! Russia alwa (Score:5, Insightful)
But the lack of a monetary interest does not mean the Russian state is not behind this. Russia's efforts are mostly aimed at sowing discord, between wetsrern allies, or between groups in those countries. If there's a good argument going between two groups, they are not above sponsoring both sides of the argument in order to fan the flames a little. Well known tactics that go back to the KGB in Soviet times.
In this case? No idea. Maybe it's just a few people who'd like to move the stock markets a little.
Re:Russia did it! Russia did it again! Russia alwa (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Russia did it! Russia did it again! Russia alwa (Score:4, Insightful)
Ya, and the Russian mafia running the joint won't have any financial interests in Western companies. Are you that daft or do you just play like on the intertubes?
Re: (Score:2)
Look at a globe, spin it around. See the blue bits ? That's ocean, for the most part nobody lives there. See the big non-blue bits ? Those are continents. Note that there's more than one. About 1/3rd of one of the 7 continents is where the US is, the rest of the planet is what we call "Not the US". It's a a pretty big area, lots of people live there.
Surprisingly the people that live in those bits have their own motives and interests that are not in fact related in any way with the US. There are e
Re: (Score:3)
How much does Xi pay you to post things like this?
Re: (Score:3)
If you think back, you'll notice that many MSM outlets in the West were quick to report rare side-effects associated with the AZ and J&J vaccines. Not so much Pfizer or Moderna.
It's almost as if those are very different types of vaccines and have different side effects. Some could've been noticed sooner than others, depending on the severity and prevalence in the population.
Re: (Score:3)
Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Insightful)
The Fox News people are vaccinated. Dollars to donuts that Marjorie Taylor Greene is vaccinated (*). A frequent poster here said something like "I'm vaccinated because I travel, but if I didn't I'd balance risk.... ". Anyone who is persuaded by these people has poor judgement.
(*) If she wasn't she'd answer "no". She's invoking HIPAA, so...
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who is persuaded by these people has poor judgement.
The fact that the phrase "YouTube influencer" is even in the vernacular tells me there are a significant number of people with poor judgement - even without this story.
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Being "famous for being famous" is nothing new. Remember the Gabor sisters?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:2)
Kardashians are experts on booties and fashion because they have a lot of both.
Re: (Score:2)
And the people who follow the Kardashians want both of those things.
Re: (Score:3)
The fact that the phrase "YouTube influencer" is even in the vernacular tells me there are a significant number of people with poor judgement - even without this story.
The phrase is a generic term for someone on Youtube with sufficient followers. You're more than capable of finding channels with actual excellent and educational information on Youtube from actual engineers, actual doctors, actual biologists etc.
The word doesn't exclusively apply to Barbie fake tit plastic make-up artists desperate to whore for attention. God knows you can trust more of what you see on Youtube than you can on America's single most popular cable news network.
Re: (Score:3)
Influencer is, in that case, just some reputable youtube channel about science.
You can check Leo Grasset's video [youtube.com] about the attempt (automatically generated English subtitles are ok). Now it's more than a month old now.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Insightful)
She doesn’t even understand who and what HIPAA applies to. Trump himself was vaccinated back in January and you’d think he would be bragging about this amazing vaccine he helped create so quickly. But nope he was too busy telling states to find him more votes.
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Informative)
I thought he was ineligible for the vaccine because of the experimental drug he took in November? Are you sure about that?
Donald Trump was vaccinated in January.
Fox: https://www.foxnews.com/politi... [foxnews.com]
Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]
Business Insider: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news... [msn.com]
CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/01... [cnn.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Trump is not only vaccinated but said publicly that it would be a "great thing" if all his followers got the vaccine, for which he is taking credit even though he did less than Dolly Parton to foster its creation. However, his followers apparently will only follow him to places they really wanted to go anyway. They are looking not for leadership, but for permission.
Re: (Score:3)
In removing regulatory hurdles, Trump did what he was advised to do, what any president would have been advised to do, what any president would have done. But in not securing sufficient doses for every American and encouraging them in the strongest terms possible to take the vaccine (he only did so after his presidency, in fact — and even then, he could have leaned into it more, but I'll not be picky, and give him that one) he failed to follow through. He had no real plan for vaccine distribution, and
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure am.
Ok, this wasn't me. I'm mostly a freeloader on this.
Look, I hate people. I really do. But, being a consultant means I had to meet people. Face to face. I had to endure their presence. Not anymore, with Covid, my quality of life went through the roof. I get to work from the comfort of my home, only have to dress down to the waist because you don't see anything else of me, I can legally turn people off when they start to go on my nerves (don't try that in real life, my lawyer said that's highly illegal).
2020 was the best year of my life. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. I am not trying to pull any reverse psychology bullshit. I am dead serious here.
And the longer these idiots keep the ball rolling by not getting vaccinated, keeping infection rates high and keeping companies all over the globe from calling their workers back to the office, the longer I get to enjoy these benefits. I was for a moment worried when I heard about the vaccine, but hey, these idiots keep going. If I had any emotion towards them, it would be gratitude for risking and even losing their life just for my comfort.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Interesting)
2020 was the best year of my life. I am not kidding
I know you're not kidding, because I feel the same way. (Though I would qualify that by saying that 2020 was the best year of my working life. But work is a big portion of life, so yeah.)
As I like to say to my coworkers: Aside from the sickness and death, I love the pandemic.
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, about that... without going into too much detail, but I may say with some confidence that if my company goes out of business, you'll get to hear it on CNN.
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, then let me rephrase it: If my current employer goes belly-up, losing my job is my least worry.
Losing my job is actually not really something I worry about at all. My skill set is rare and in very high demand.
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't. Boomers are among the first to get the vaccine and are also usually very interested in getting everything that doesn't cost them anything.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Informative)
The Fox News people are vaccinated. Dollars to donuts that Marjorie Taylor Greene is vaccinated (*).
(*) If she wasn't she'd answer "no". She's invoking HIPAA, so...
Noting that HIPAA doesn't prevent *you* from discussing / disclosing your own information ...
Re: (Score:2)
There's also nothing in the HIPAA that keeps you from lying, so whatever she says ... given her track record I mostly wouldn't care.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Informative)
Only within specifically-defined circumstances. For instance, employers can ask about - and require proof of - your vaccination status.
https://www.hipaaguide.net/can... [hipaaguide.net]
Re: (Score:2)
It also protects you from those who ask for said information.
...If those asking are health care insurance providers.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Informative)
It also protects you from those who ask for said information.
Nope. From Can Employers ask Employees about COVID-19 Vaccinations? [hipaaguide.net]
HIPAA applies to HIPAA-covered entities, which are healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as any vendors (business associates) of those entities that have access to protected health information.
It would be a HIPAA violation, for example, if a healthcare provider was to disclose information about an individual’s vaccine status for reasons other than for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, or for certain public health activities, without prior authorization.
Employers are not prohibited from asking their employees if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and there are no federal laws that prohibit an employer or business from asking for proof of vaccination status. If an employer asks an employee about their vaccine status, the employee can refuse to answer, but there could well be consequences.
TL;DR: HIPPA only applies to health care providers that have or need access to your information.
Confusion (accidental or deliberate) is common. For example )also from the article above:
Recently, in defiance of House Rules, several GOP members refused to wear masks on the House floor even though they had not been fully vaccinated, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) claimed that asking about her COVID-19 vaccine status was a HIPAA violation, showing a lack of understanding about HIPAA and to whom the legislation applies.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:4, Informative)
I've taken several HIPPA trainings, and I can't remember ever hearing that it is illegal to ask for information. Even for entities that are covered by HIPPA. Maybe I missed something.
HIPPA prevents disclosure of information, not collection of information.
Re: (Score:3)
I think you mean HIPAA. HIPPA does control collection of information. Of course, HIPPA is also fictitious.
https://twitter.com/investigatorchi/status/1417914036860170243/photo/1
Re: Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Insightful)
"She's invoking HIPAA, so..."
Yep, and she's an idiot. She claims it's a HIPAA violation to ask her, which shows a boss-level ignorance of HIPAA.
When asked, all she had to do is say "that's private" or "NOYB" or the good old standby, "no comment". Instead she chose to display her ignorance for the world to see and poke fun at.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of people who refuse the VAX are also invoking HIPAA as well...I was part of a conversation where an actual lawyer was refusing to answer someone's question saying "that's a HIPAA violation."
He was promptly derided by ANOTHER lawyer who reminded him that it's a HIPAA violation if "someone else exposes your information but it's not a valid excuse to hide the fact you're an anti-vax idiot." So anyone claiming they can't answer on account of HIPAA is just citing a law they don't understand and are either trying to keep up a lie to deceive others or don't want it and don't want to answer.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:5, Interesting)
She was asked about her vaccination status and never gave back a straight answer. She's playing the deluded followers of the former alleged president just as much as he is.
Re:Disinformers are vaccinated themselves (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Unfortunately, she seems to revel in her stupidity and treat it like a pro instead of a con. In fact, there's a large portion of this country that looks down upon intelligent and educated folks as being worth less than outright stupid folks. If they had their way, they'd drag us all down to their level.
Re: (Score:2)
Value of a life. (Score:2)
There has been speculation about the Russian connections to this scandal and the interests of the Russian state in promoting its own vaccine — Sputnik V.
Life and death, for sale.
Re: Value of a life. (Score:2)
The killer is already inside the building, (Score:3, Insightful)
I mean, isn't it called the Republican party now?
I understand the reasoning - the theory is that there's always illness, and you shouldn't stop important business because of blah, blah - you get the idea.
But pandemic isn't just disease like normal - and there's big obvious reasons much of the world has serious organizations active to prevent runaway pandemic.
Only, politically - Republicans have major beef against any of those organizations in the US. So... it's political. And it most certainly IS Republicans in this particular case.
Not that Democrats don't have a large swath of idiots in this regard - lots of anti-vax proponents among the California celebrity class and the like. The difference is scale and influence - the "my-body-my-choice" anti-vaxers don't have much sway against actual public health concerns - and will be swatted away pretty harshly in any even minor local outbreak, unable to send children to schools, and lots of similar functional stopping points.
The 'I want to make more money this week, and don't care if it kills my employees" anti-vax movement will not be swatted away in the current Republican party.
Outsider messages trying to sway us to harm are also worth noting and following up on as hostile acts - but aren't that large a factor under the circumstances.
To reference Hitchcock: The killer is already inside the building,
Ryan Fenton
Re: (Score:2)
Not that Democrats don't have a large swath of idiots in this regard - lots of anti-vax proponents among the California celebrity class and the like.
Noting that there are, actually, a fair number of celebrities who are Republicans -- and Trump supporters ...
Google: celebrities republican [google.com]
Re: (Score:2)
The influencers are influencing government officials though. Tennessee in particular has legislators up in arms that schools are strongly encouraging vaccination, which they claim is coercing students into getting the shot. They think that how dare schools, and their own state's health board, go against the fake advice of Trump and Carlson.
Re: (Score:2)
LA is not all of California, California is near the top of all the states in combating this. Doesn't negate at all that the Tennessee officials are acting really really dumb.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Or it could be all the Republican morons in the American news encouraging people to resist any and all reasonable public health measures that convinced liberals that it's the Republicans.
Re: The killer is already inside the building, (Score:5, Informative)
So, before the vaccine was available yet, Biden said that in order for him to take it, the safety review would have to be transparent and then it would need to be considered safe. Then a transparent review happened and it was found to be safe. Then we saw Biden and Harris on national television getting the vaccine just like he said he would. Where's the problem?
Before the vaccine was available, he urged everyone to follow the best available public health practices and did so himself in public. Also where's the problem?
Meanwhile, the GOP position was that COVID was fake news and everyone should ignore public health advice. He and other Republicans conspicuously ignored any and all public health advice. Many Republicans strongly fought to kill any sort of public health mandate and even sabotage private efforts. Trump did get the vaccine for himself but he kept it quiet.
Sorry, the old "But the other side is also a steaming pile" isn't going to work for you here. There are too many inconvenient facts for that.
This country does not need conspiracy nuts who believe in secret Jewish space lasers and whine about a vaccination like a toddler. Time to grow up.
Re: The killer is already inside the building, (Score:5, Interesting)
One, they could not agree to delay the elections, it wasn't within their power. Two, that would have vacated the office of the President under the Constitution and Amusingly that would have made Pelosi the President Pro Temp (I'm guessing then you would call it a power grab by the Democrats). Three, it didn't delay the deployment of the Vaccine, though the constant whining about the voice of the people probably did.
None of that negates Trump and practically all other GOP leaders claiming COVID was fake news (and many are STILL dodging the vaccine). Some of the GOP leadership does seem to have finally realized that the vaccine nad mask refusal are primarily killing Republican vioters now.
Re: (Score:3)
Here in Canada, there was very little politicking of the pandemic, on both the Federal and Provincial level and even now, it is mostly about the road to recovery that is politicized.
Re:The killer is already inside the building, (Score:4, Insightful)
He did not urge anyone to skip the vaccine nor to ignore public health measures. As it turned out, Trump's rollout plans were counter-productive and Biden did have to re-do everything on an emergency basis to make an actual rollout happen. As it turns out, the Trump administration didn't get a single vial of vaccine actually available to vaccinate anyone in any event. He did help accelerate the development, I'll give him that. That makes it all the more perplexing that he continued to call COVID fake news and urge people to ignore public health measures.
Beyond that, most of the rank and file liberals ignored Cuomo. I can tell you that had the vaccine actually become available to me before Biden took office, I would have gladly gotten it. Meanwhile, the conservative rank and file still refuses even though you can get it at a local pharmacy and don't even need an appointment.
And there's the thing, it's not just GOP leaders, it's the pundits and the rank and file as well.
Again, time to stop the excuses, grow up, embrace reality, and get vaccinated.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Not quite true. He managed to secure enough for himself. The world would have been better off if he had been too incompetent to even manage that.
Re: (Score:3)
Trump's rollout plans were "counterproductive"? Biden had to "re-do" everything? You're as bad as a Trump supporter.
There is some truth to that. There were indeed supply chain problems that the incoming Biden administration had to correct. Soon after he took office, Biden changed the system to ensure regular deliveries to the states (they could not plan if they had no idea how many doses they were going to get. Also, they procured more doses because they did not have enough to meet the demand. [yahoo.com]
As I commented to a sibling poster, Donald Trump had rejected an offer from Pfizer of an additional 100 million doses of their vac [theguardian.com]
It's spelled "influenza" (Score:2, Troll)
These people are a disease, it's time we call it that.
Re: (Score:2)
Now look at that, some influenza had gotten some modpoints.
critical (Score:5, Interesting)
"French YouTuber Léo Grasset believes we'll see more attempts to manipulate public opinion, especially young people — apparently because it's incredibly easy."
"Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills." https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
No doubt just a coincidence...
Re: (Score:2)
Deflection.
It was written into the GOP's official platform for the 2012 Presidential election.
Look it up, read it yourself, or go on believing in the tooth fairy. I really don't give a bleep.
Bye Felicia!
Re: (Score:2)
"We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the studentâ(TM)s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
Once again, you're living in an alternate reality of cognitive dissonance refusing to accept how bad your party actually is.
Foreign agents (Score:5, Insightful)
People who knowingly spread disinformation to harm a country need to be tried and convicted for treason.
Re:Foreign agents (Score:5, Funny)
People who knowingly spread disinformation to harm a country need to be tried and convicted for treason.
And sent to that level in Hell "reserved for child molesters and people that talk in theaters." (-- Shepherd Book)
Re: (Score:2)
It's more likely they'd be recuited into one of the 3-letter agencies, if they weren't already part of them...
RT YouTube channel is a purveyor of this (Score:5, Informative)
In the thumbnail for the video you'll see the exact verbiage described in this article. Here's a link to the video:
Pfizer jab deadlier than AstraZeneca across Europe - leaked study [youtube.com]
Do you want your shot or Covid-19? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anti-vaxxers appear not to appreciate that the choice is not, do you want to get vaccinated or not; it is, do you want to get vaccinated or get Covid-19.
Covid-19 will be with us for a long (many years) timeframe. If you are not vaccinated you will (bar extreme and permanent isolation) get it eventually.
Do you want the usually mild and short-termed side effects of the vaccine? Or do you want the usually worse and potentially lethal side effects of getting Covid-19?
Darwin's Law will sort this out over the next few years.
Re:Do you want your shot or Covid-19? (Score:5, Informative)
The messaging should be, "Don't want the jab which was partially developed using your tax dollars? That's fine. Canada and Mexico need them. But we're not waiting for you anymore."
Of course at least one vaccine needs to be approved for use on children before we can let people wallow in the consequences of their own bad decisions. Trying to do this now would just kill way too many people who are simply caught in the crossfire.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree, and I'd be alright with that if it wasn't for the small percentage of people who can't get the vaccine due to medical conditions who will now probably have to roll the dice with COVID due to our herd immunity failure.
The black and white concept of personal freedom and where ones personal freedoms start/stop becomes very murky when individual choices at a macro scale by millions of people almost certainly kill individuals at the micro scale.
Alex Jones (Score:2)
What about Alex jones selling what is in my estimation poison supplements? As natural as hemlock.
Unite behind the best conspiracy theory (Score:2)
We have long passed the point where scientific arguments will work against Luddites. The only way to counteract a conspiracy theory is with a more convincing conspiracy theory.
Re: (Score:3)
I like the one where the government tries to trick the "critical thinkers" into not getting the vaccine by distrusting the government, so the vaccine is actually real and working because the government only wants the good sheeple to survive, and as soon as they're all vaccinated they're gonna launch the deadly version to round up and kill all those that didn't bend over.
Re:Unite behind the best conspiracy theory (Score:4, Interesting)
Thing is, this could just happen, as the path of least resistance rather than a conspiracy. It has already partially happened with Delta Plus. But it does open an opportunity for someone to deliberately make things worse at a critical moment, concealed by the statistics of random mutation.
Xitler is laughing (Score:4, Interesting)
The CCP is spending billions to destabilize the US. I've seen large numbers of Russians in China. There is a high probability that many Russian hackers and propaganda workers are being paid by the CCP.
Reverse information (Score:2)
You are not the user (Score:4, Insightful)
Warrant (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you assume there is an ad agency? Why do you assume the ad agency is in the jurisdiction of the EU? A government can demand information, but actually forcing compliance may be a bit of a problem, especially when the source is another state-level actor.
Re: (Score:2)
Murder (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyone deliberately spreading clearly incorrect information about anything should be charged with murder should anyone who is exposed to their lies die because they took actions based on those lies.
The individuals in that advertising company should be charged.
news at 11 (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Why would anybody do that? Sputnik V already has the (rightly deserved) reputation of being the most substandard vaccine you can possibly get. Even Sinovac has a better reputation. You really don't need influencers or "false flags" to give it a bad reputation, because it already has the worst.
Re: (Score:2)
A purposefully sloppy job designed to be exposed. Who would that benefit most?
Sure, conspiracy theory, but we're talking about intelligence agencies already; there's a certain amount of "latitude" necessary when talking about what they may be up to.
Re: Double bluff. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Why would anybody do that? Sputnik V already has the (rightly deserved) reputation of being the most substandard vaccine you can possibly get.
Since you've stated that the poor reputation is rightly deserved perhaps you'd care to provide some actual evidence for the failings of the vaccine - not the failings of the Russian state, not failings in their communication strategy, but failings of the vaccine itself. Since you're comparing it to other vaccines in current use I'll take a recent population study, showing the effectiveness rates of the various vaccines. If you'd like to link to a study showing rates and types of side effects as well, again
Re: Double bluff. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
You may have been modded "Troll" but it is actually a serious consideration that Leo Grasset mentions in his video (I don't know about Mirko). He doesn't favor this hypothesis, citing Hanlon's razor, and I think that it is the right approach, but the truth is that we don't know.
Re: (Score:2)
I would, and I do benefit from it. But I wouldn't pay for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Anarchists. There are plenty of countries that stand to gain by society wide problems within the USA.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think that a bunch of Europeans being targeted with vaccine misinformation is an attack on America?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You could ask Joe Biden and Kamala Harris who both said that the vaccines were dangerous because Trump himself created them.
You're a programming person so you should understand the logic being expressed back then:
IF $trump_claims_safe AND NOT $cdc_experts_confirm_safety THEN $level_of_trust = 0
What's the motive? (Score:2)
Most people don't have to be bribed to spread true information, so that should be your first clue. As for the government keeping it out of the public; I'm not saying governments don't lie, but they need a damn good reason to offset the risk of getting caught. The government has absolutely no incentive to promote one vaccine company over another. They have to pay for them, regardless of which one people chose.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I was told by a conspiracy theorist that 'They' have to show you what they are doing via TV and movies. Its part of universal law (you know, the laws made by God, rather than 'man made statute') . So your TV based evidence/anecdote could be valid. On the other hand, its quite easy to look at the evidence supporting the information (its in the article) and work out whether its true or not yourself. If the evidence is not valid that would make your comment pretty stupid, but as they say in the circles of cons
Re: (Score:2)
It is disgusting but don't make this political. It isn't. This is about how broken the pharmacologic industry is. We should have never allowed them to advertise.
Can you see that this statement is contradictory? Or does someone need to explain it to you.
Payback (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If you keep them divided they're easier to control individually. Divide and rule is one of the oldest known strategies to work very well.
Re: BBC is smearing their competition. (Score:3)
Re:Everyone was (Score:4, Interesting)
Who paid you to utter that misinformation ?
Re: This is backwards. (Score:2)