Facebook bans over 300 accounts that claimed Covid-19 vaccines would turn humans into chimpanzees

The campaign also aimed at engaging influencers with pre-existing audiences on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok to post content and use particular hashtags without disclosing the origin of the posts.

Facebook has banned over 300 misinformation accounts that claimed Covid-19 vaccines from Astrazeneca and Pfizer would turn humans into chimpanzees. These accounts were reportedly linked to Russian disinformation networks and targeted users primarily in India, Latin America and the US. As per reports, the disinformation network initially posted memes and comments, in November and December 2020, claiming that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine would turn people into chimpanzees after which it remained inactive. After 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 document. “We 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 report.