Pharma Files: How Big Pharma Pressured Social Media to Shape ‘Vaccine’ Information

In the latest edition of the Twitter Files, investigative journalist  and The Intercept writer Lee Fang focused on the pharmaceutical industry’s social media lobbying efforts to “shape content around vaccine policy.”

“The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner BioNTech to censor activists demanding low-cost generic vaccines for low-income countries,” Fang wrote.

1. New piece from the TWITTER FILES.
How the pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content around vaccine policy.

The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner BioNTech to censor activists demanding low-cost generic vaccines for low-income countries.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

Fang discussed how global drug giants and biotech firms launched a massive lobbying campaign to squash efforts to share patents on COVID-related medicines, such as therapeutics and ‘vaccines.’

He also detailed how a Pharma-funded nonprofit created tools to fight COVID-19 “misinformation,” but the censorship arm never applied to drug companies.

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“In 2020, it was clear that the pandemic would require rapid innovation. Early on, there was a push to make the solution equitable: an international partnership to share ideas, technology, new forms of medicine to rapidly solve this crisis,” Fang wrote.

“But global drug giants saw the crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented profit. Behind closed doors, pharma launched a massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine, including therapeutics and vaccines.”

3. But global drug giants saw the crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented profit. Behind closed doors, pharma launched a massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine, including therapeutics and vaccines.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

Fang described this lobbying effort in further detail at The Intercept:

IN MID-DECEMBER 2020, Nina Morschhaeuser, a lobbyist for Twitter in Europe, emailed colleagues with a dire warning. The drugmaker BioNTech, along with the German government, had contacted her with news of an imminent “campaign targeting the pharmaceutical companies developing the COVID-19 vaccine,” she wrote.

“The authorities are warning about ‘serious consequences’ of the action, i.e. posts and a flood of comments ‘that may violate TOS’ as well as the ‘takeover of user accounts’ are to be expected,” wrote Morschhaeuser. “Especially the personal accounts of the management of the vaccine manufacturers are said to be targeted. Accordingly, fake accounts could also be set up.”

The campaign they were concerned about was the launch of an international push to force the drug industry to share the intellectual property and patents associated with coronavirus vaccine development. Making the patents available, in turn, would allow countries across the world to swiftly manufacture generic vaccines and other low-cost therapeutics to deal with the ongoing pandemic.

Fang also described the efforts of BIO, a lobby group that represents pharma and biotech companies, to pressure the U.S. government to sanction countries that attempted to “violate patent rights.”

“BIO, the lobby group that represents biopharma, including Moderna & Pfizer, wrote to the newly elected Biden admin, demanding the U.S. gov sanction any country attempting to violate patent rights and create generic low cost covid medicine or vaccines,” he wrote.

“That brings us to Twitter. The global lobbying blitz includes direct pressure on social media. BioNTech, which developed Pfizer’s vaccine, reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines,” he added.

5. That brings us to Twitter. The global lobbying blitz includes direct pressure on social media. BioNTech, which developed Pfizer's vaccine, reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines. pic.twitter.com/6cVIRcUDZV

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

“Twitter’s reps responded quickly to the pharma request, which was also backed by the German government. A lobbyist in Europe asked the content moderation team to monitor the accounts of Pfizer, AstraZeneca & of activist hashtags like #peoplesvaccine,” Feng noted.

“The potential ‘fake accounts’ that Twitter monitored for protesting Pfizer? These were real people. Here’s one the Twitter team flagged for potential terms of use violations. I talked to Terry, a 74 year old retired bricklayer in the UK on the phone.”

7. The potential "fake accounts" that Twitter monitored for protesting Pfizer? These were real people. Here's one the Twitter team flagged for potential terms of use violations. I talked to Terry, a 74 year old retired bricklayer in the UK on the phone. https://t.co/qIH0Tngsm1

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

Although it’s unclear what actions Twitter took on this issue, the company still monitored tweets.

“In a separate push, Pfizer & Moderna’s lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects, which worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid ‘misinformation,'” Fang noted.

“BIO provided $1,275,000 to the campaign, part of which is revealed through tax forms. The PGP campaign, called ‘Stronger,’ helped Twitter create content moderation bots, select which public health accounts got verification, helped crowdsource content takedowns.”

10. BIO provided $1,275,000 to the campaign, part of which is revealed through tax forms. The PGP campaign, called "Stronger," helped Twitter create content moderation bots, select which public health accounts got verification, helped crowdsource content takedowns. pic.twitter.com/emWC2Dmg3E

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

Fang noted how the Pharma-funded campaign targeted a list of tweets to take down and others to verify.

Apparently, many focused on Zero Hedge, whose account was suspended.

“The Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included direct regular emails with lists of tweets to takedown & others to verify. Here’s an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter’s lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended,” Fang wrote.

12. The Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included direct regular emails with lists of tweets to takedown & others to verify. Here's an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter's lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended. pic.twitter.com/wNPPx1IiRD

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

However, the censorship campaign didn’t touch drug companies.

“Notably, this massive push to censor and label covid misinfo never applied to drug companies. When big pharma wildly exaggerated the risks of creating low-cost generic covid vaccines, Stronger did nothing. The rules applied only to critics of industry,” Fang wrote.

14. Here is my reported piece w/more detail. I was given some access to Twitter emails. I signed/agreed to nothing, Twitter had no input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by a Twitter attorney, so what I saw could be limited. https://t.co/McEaKZ2MKX

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

Fang highlighted the gargantuan amounts of profit pharmaceutical companies raked in from the experimental COVID-19 shots.

From The Intercept:

The largely successful assault against the creation of generic vaccines resulted in an unprecedented explosion in profit for a few select biopharmaceutical drug interests. Pfizer and BioNTech generated a staggering $37 billion in revenue from its shared mRNA vaccine in 2021 alone, making it one of the most lucrative drug products of all time.

Moderna, which made $17.7 billion from vaccine sales in 2021, recently announced its plan to hike the price of its Covid shot by about 400 percent.

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The high cost of vaccines and concentrated ownership meant supplies in 2021 were hoarded in the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Japan, and other wealthy countries, while much of the developing world was forced to wait for excess vaccines the following year.

However, given the number of cardiologists to call for suspension of the mRNA COVID-19 jabs, I don’t think “wealthy countries” are excited about hoarding the experimental gene therapy.

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