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The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a division of the State Department that monitors foreign propaganda efforts, among others, said that Russian intelligence was linked to the four Internet platforms involved in the campaign.
The platforms spread “misinformation about two vaccines now approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) in the country,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
“It is very clear that Russia is taking its old tricks and in doing so it is putting people in danger by spreading misinformation about vaccines that we know save lives every day,” Price added.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the GEC’s findings that the content of those websites exaggerated the risk of side effects from a vaccine made by Pfizer in the United States, apparently to promote the use of Sputnik V, a drug. developed in Russia. .
In an assessment received last year by the AFP news agency, GEC said there was a coordinated campaign across thousands of social media accounts to distort the facts about the COVID-19 pandemic, including allegations that the United States had contributed to the spread of the disease. .
The center also found that China had been involved in similar activities for some time, but ultimately decided that it would be more effective to focus on Beijing’s own efforts to combat the coronavirus.
American intelligence has long suspected Russia of misinformation campaigns in the health care field, including the myth that spread in the 1990s that American scientists had created the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). , which causes AIDS.
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