Censorship: Twitter Takeover Totally Panics Political Regime of LeftLibDemSocMediaTechPol

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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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Daniel Bocic Martinez @Dan4CA31
Jan 16
Replying to @lhfang
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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
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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.
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DZDӨЯK2 @dzdork2
Jan 16
It’s really not your job to apply these labels.
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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.
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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
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