nitter Logo Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. 819 18,493 1,948 39,779 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 2. 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. medicinespatentpool.org/news… New agreement under C-TAP aims to improve global access to COVID-19 testing technologies - MPP Geneva – A new, open, transparent sublicence agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) on behalf of C-TAP, and South African pharmaceutical company Biotech Africa will accelerate the manufa... medicinespatentpool.org 47 1,469 36 7,050 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. 84 2,205 109 8,623 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 4. 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. theintercept.com/2021/03/03/… Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Foreign Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines Big Pharma is fighting for tight control over Covid-19 vaccine production, limiting availability worldwide while reaping billions. theintercept.com 106 3,276 200 10,054 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. 127 2,731 244 9,395 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 6. 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 44 1,757 98 7,540 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. Terry Brough #PeaceJusticeSocialism ✊ @TerryB28937065 14 Dec 2020 Dear @AlbertBourla, @sbancel & #PascalSoriot, 9/10 people in poor countries are going to MISS OUT on a #COVID19 vaccine next year. Will @Pfizer, @BioNTech_Group @moderna_tx & @AstraZeneca #JoinCTAP to ensure that everyone, everywhere can be safe? We need a #PeoplesVaccine! 29 1,644 44 7,512 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 8. It's not clear what actions Twitter ultimately took on this particular request. Several Twitter employees noted in subsequent messages that none of this activism constituted abuse. But the company continued monitoring tweets. 24 1,138 27 6,373 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 9. 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." 47 1,735 93 7,057 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. 42 1,954 96 7,163 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 11. Many of the tweets the BIO-funded campaign focused on were truly unhinged misinfo, like claims that vaccines include microchips. But others Stronger lobbied Twitter on were more of a grey area, like vaccine passports & vaccine mandates, policies that coerce vaccination. Jan 16, 2023 · 4:17 PM UTC · Twitter Web App 79 1,362 49 6,473 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. 108 2,572 182 8,802 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 13. 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. PhRMA @PhRMA 9 Nov 2022 The biopharma sector employs more than 900,000 workers and supports 4.4 million U.S. jobs. Those jobs would be at risk if the #TRIPS waiver is extended to #COVID19 treatments. Read more about the real consequences of waiving commitments to protect IP: onphr.ma/3WIS8ER 40 1,982 68 7,675 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 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. theintercept.com/2023/01/16/… Covid-19 Drugmakers Pressured Twitter to Censor Activists Pushing for Generic Vaccine The social media pressure campaign was just a part of the pharmaceutical industry’s successful lobbying blitz to retain patents — and make record profits. theintercept.com 94 1,905 71 7,289 Lee Fang @lhfang Jan 16 15. Thanks @davidzweig and @lwoodhouse for help, and look for more Twitter reporting from @mtaibbi, @ShellenbergerMD, @bariweiss/@TheFP and others. You can find me on Substack here leefang.substack.com/p/creat… Creating a Substack I’m starting a Substack. For now, this is a platform for me to provide further context for my reporting, as well as original source documents, research tips, and analysis. I’m interested in exposing... leefang.substack.com 165 1,155 24 6,523 Daniel Bocic Martinez @Dan4CA31 Jan 16 Replying to @lhfang 1 4 26 Amy Peikoff @AmyPeikoff Jan 16 Replying to @lhfang What about the safety signals? Similar suppression, I assume? Content like this, for example? piped.kavin.rocks/eYz-yelhkYE Rare complications Changes of ECG parameters after BNT162b2 vaccine in the senior high school studentshttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36602621/Full text linkhttps://www.ncbi.nl... youtube.com 2 7 DZDӨЯK2 @dzdork2 Jan 16 Replying to @lhfang I would suggest journalists refrain from using ‘judgey’ terms like “unhinged misinfo” in light of how much of that unhinged misinfo has later been proven to have been true. 4 5 22 DZDӨЯK2 @dzdork2 Jan 16 It’s really not your job to apply these labels. 1 11 English Constitution Party @grahamHmoore Jan 16 Replying to @lhfang This is not a grey area: Coercion is illegal. As is subverting the right of individuals to informed consent. 1 21 DZDӨЯK2 @dzdork2 Jan 16 Replying to @lhfang Can listen to these Twitter files read here: rumble.com/v25vg24-twitter-f… Twitter Files: Big Pharma Edition Patrick Gunnels: @pgunnels1 on Twitter Chris Paul: @imyourmoderator on Twitter rumble.com 2 4 Load more