Pfizer, BioNTech ‘Pressured’ Twitter To Censor Activists Demanding Generic COVID Vaccine: Report

A new edition of the Twitter Files Monday’s release alleges that a coronavirus vaccine producer pressured Twitter to censor accounts that were trying to push companies to share intellectual property and patents related with vaccines in order for low-cost generic versions of the vaccines to be made.

The Intercept reported that BioNTech, which developed Pfizer’s vaccine, and the German government allegedly warned the social media company of upcoming pressure campaigns targeting the companies.

“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,” Nina Morschhaeuser is a lobbyist for Twitter and stated this in an email. “Especially the personal accounts of the management of the vaccine manufacturers are said to be targeted. Accordingly, fake accounts could also be set up.”

Pfizer and Moderna’s lobbying group, BIO, did flag tweets that contained genuine misinformation, like claiming that vaccines contained microchips. BIO also donated $1,275,000 for a campaign called “Stronger” This helped Twitter to create content moderation robots and choose which public health accounts received verification. Lee Fang from The Intercept reported that some of the targeted content appeared to be misinformation. Lee was covering the latest installments of Twitter Files.

“But others Stronger lobbied Twitter on were more of a grey area, like vaccine passports & vaccine mandates, policies that coerce vaccination,” Fang wrote.

11. The BIO-funded campaign highlighted many tweets that were unhinged misinformation, such as claims that vaccines contain microchips. Others, however, lobbied Twitter for a grayer area. They included vaccine passports and mandates, as well as policies that coerce vaccine. pic.twitter.com/Xb9gcMxOLL

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 16, 2023

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