Facebook bans over 300 accounts for claiming Covid-19 vaccines would turn humans into chimpanzees

Facebook banned hundreds of social media accounts linked to a Russian vaccine misinformation network, the company said in its July Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior report. The removed Facebook and Instagram accounts largely operated out of Russia and baselessly claimed that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine turned recipients into chimpanzees. Several memes circulated by the accounts used images from the 1968 movie "Planet of the Apes."

As per reports, Facebook has banned over 300 misinformation accounts over the matter. The reports also claimed that the disinformation network initially posted memes and comments, in November and December 2020, claiming that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine would turn people into chimpanzees after which it became inactive. However, the network after a gap of five months surfaced again in May 2021 and questioned the safety of the Pfizer vaccine.

Ben Nimmo, Global IO Threat Intelligence Lead, and the IO Threat Intelligence Team at Facebook, said, “We removed 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against foreign interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a foreign entity. This network operated across over a dozen platforms and forums but failed to build an audience. Our investigation found links between this campaign and Fazze. Fazze is now banned from our platform.”