{"id":1442032,"date":"2023-12-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1442032"},"modified":"2023-12-04T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T15:00:00","slug":"moderna-employs-former-fbi-analyst-ai-to-secretly-police-covid-vaccine-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/moderna-employs-former-fbi-analyst-ai-to-secretly-police-covid-vaccine-misinformation\/1442032\/","title":{"rendered":"Moderna Employs Former FBI Analyst, AI To Secretly Police COVID ‘Vaccine Misinformation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moderna Employs Former FBI Analyst, AI To Secretly Police COVID ‘Vaccine Misinformation’ <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

(luchschenF\/Shutterstock)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical giant Moderna is policing what it calls \u201cvaccine misinformation\u201d online through its disinformation department<\/strong> aimed at shutting down dissenting voices and anything that might undermine COVID-19-related policies, such as lockdowns, vaccine passports, and mass vaccination.<\/p>\n

According to an exclusive report by investigative journalists<\/a> Lee Fang and Jack Poulson published on Nov. 20 in UnHerd, Moderna isn\u2019t just manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines; it has an entire team dedicated to monitoring a wide range of social media platforms, government agencies, and news websites in the name of addressing the \u201croot cause of vaccine hesitancy\u201d by identifying and \u201cshutting down misinformation\u201d that may negatively affect the vaccine debate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The internal documents show a \u201csprawling effort to monitor basically everything said online, on social media, and in the news media about vaccine policy, COVID policy, about Moderna, and other vaccine companies,\u201d Mr. Fang told The Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Monitoring Team of Former FBI, Secret Service, and Pharma-Funded NGOs<\/h2>\n

Moderna\u2019s monitoring team includes its Global Intelligence division, run by Nikki Rutman, who was involved in compiling internal company misinformation reports of \u201chigh-risk\u201d celebrities critical of vaccine mandates<\/strong>, including unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic, Elon Musk, and actor Russell Brand, according to the investigative report.<\/p>\n

Before joining \u201cModerna\u2019s corporate security team\u201d in 2022, Ms. Rutman worked as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. intelligence community for nearly 19 years<\/strong>, most of which was spent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to the report, Ms. Rutman was working from the FBI\u2019s Boston office during the COVID-19 pandemic and \u201cOperation Warp Speed,\u201d<\/strong> which involved weekly cybersecurity meetings with Moderna, also headquartered in Boston.<\/p>\n

Before her role with the FBI, Ms. Rutman worked for the Director of National Intelligence as an \u201cadviser on terrorism to a mission manager\u201d and as a counterintelligence analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n

Ms. Rutman is only one of many former law enforcement agents working on Moderna\u2019s monitoring team<\/strong>, along with a drug industry-funded NGO called the Public Good Projects (PGP) and Talkwalker, an artificial intelligence firm <\/strong>that uses its technology to monitor vaccine-related discussions across 150 million websites in nearly 200 countries.<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Fang, PGP is an \u201canti-misinformation NGO\u201d financed through a $1,275,000 donation from the Biotechnology and Innovation Organization\u2014lobbyists representing Pfizer and Moderna\u2014that works closely with social media platforms, government agencies, and news websites to classify and combat alleged vaccine misinformation.<\/p>\n

“We know from a separate batch of documents\u2014the Twitter files\u2014that I reported earlier this year, that the same partners that are working with Moderna\u2014PGP and some of these other NGOs\u2014had a direct line to Twitter’s executives, and they also worked with Google and Facebook to shape content moderation policies<\/strong>,” Mr. Fang told The Hill.<\/p>\n

These Moderna-funded NGOs were pressuring social media companies to change their content moderation policies and delete and \u201cde-amplify\u201d specific tweets critical of coercive vaccine policies, Mr. Fang said. “They were actually sending entire Excel documents with tweets they wanted censored,” he added.<\/p>\n

Talkwalker’s website states it is a “social listening and consumer intelligence platform” that helps pharmaceutical businesses by providing an array of services, including “above brand monitoring” and “misinformation detection.” Neither PGP nor Talkwalker has publically disclosed how they define “misinformation” or who determines that one’s speech falls into this category. However, Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson say these organizations, along with marketing executives and former FBI and Secret Service analysts, provide <\/span>misinformation alerts<\/span> to Moderna. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the reports that we have seen makes any attempt to dispute the claims made,<\/strong>\u201d Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson wrote<\/span>. \u201cRather, the claims are automatically deemed \u201cmisinformation\u201d if they encourage vaccine hesitancy.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond identifying and attempting to censor subjectively determined vaccine misinformation, Moderna has provided talking points and advice to a network of 45,000 healthcare professionals\u2014unbeknownst to their patients\u2014on \u201chow to respond when vaccine misinformation goes mainstream,\u201d according to an email from Moderna.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya,\u00a0co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration<\/a> and professor of medicine at Stanford University, said Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson\u2019s report is \u201cabsolute fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cModerna, thru the Public Goods Project, pays thousands of health professionals to attack and defame vaccine critics and push social media to censor anyone who says things, true or false, that reduce profits,\u201d Dr. Bhattacharya posted on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

Moderna Censors Legitimate Discussion About Vaccines<\/h2>\n

Moderna isn\u2019t just flagging \u201cmisinformation\u201d it considers a \u201cdanger to public health.\u201d It\u2019s flagging legitimate discussion<\/a> of vaccine-related issues and mere criticism of vaccine companies, according to Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson.<\/p>\n

For example, Moderna\u2019s misinformation reports rate news surrounding Novak Djokovic as \u201chigh risk.\u201d Mr. Djokovic acquired natural immunity<\/a> from SARS-CoV-2 infection and refused to get vaccinated, preventing him from competing in the 2022 US Open. He returned in 2023 when mandates had been lifted and won the Moderna-sponsored competition. Moderna said vaccine opponents were celebrating his win, and social media users were \u201cmockingly\u201d pointing out that Moderna was a US Open sponsor.<\/p>\n

The Moderna internal report entitled \u201cDjokovic Crowned Anti-vaccine Hero after US Open Win\u201d stated the \u201coptics of Djokovic\u201d bolsters \u201canti-vaccine claims that vaccines\u2014and mandates\u2014are unnecessary.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Inc., and owner of \u201cX,\u201d\u00a0 was also classified as \u201chigh risk\u201d because he mocked the media and government officials who erroneously claimed COVID-19 vaccines were 100 percent effective against the virus. Moderna\u2019s report didn\u2019t identify any false statements. Still, it raised concerns that pointing out the \u201cdeception by health authorities and health care providers during the pandemic\u201d would \u201clay the groundwork to sow distrust in credible sources on vaccine safety and effectiveness.\u201d In other words, Moderna wasn\u2019t flagging the video because it was wrong but because it negatively shaped public discourse around COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

Although some tweets flagged by Moderna\u2019s disinformation team were legitimate misinformation, many were \u201cgenuine points of disagreement around coercive vaccine policy,\u201d such as vaccine passports and mandates, Mr. Fang told The Hill.<\/p>\n

Another Moderna report flagged an Oct. 5 post on X that expressed Mr. Musk’s opposition to vaccine mandates. <\/strong>The report states: \u201cMusk has one of the largest platforms in the world\u2014literally and figuratively. He increasingly uses that platform to elevate fringe vaccine opponents and conspiracy theorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese mandates were not successful in increasing vaccination rates. It got tens of thousands of Americans fired or pushed out of their jobs. These were controversial policies that were eventually overturned by the Supreme Court,\u201d Mr. Fang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an area of misinformation that needed to be censored. This was a legitimate area of public debate around the very controversial and novel application of public policy that benefited just a small number of corporations,\u201d he added. \u201cBasically, the government forcing you to buy a certain product and to use it in your body. This is a bodily autonomy issue\u2014a public health area that deserved more scrutiny, not less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell Brand, a critic of pharmaceutical companies, was also flagged <\/strong>for his claim that Moderna and Pfizer made $1,000 of profit every second from the pandemic because his views are \u201ccirculated in anti-vaccine spaces where he is viewed as a truth-teller and threat to authority,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere this is potentially problematic is that if you look closely at these misinformation reports, they are clearly blurring the line between fighting actual disinformation\u2014intentional lies\u2014and classifying legitimate points of discussion around vaccine policy as dangerous misinformation,\u201d Fang told The Hill. \u201cThey\u2019re taking kind of a broad brush and painting any kind of criticism of their company vaccines as dangerous misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Moderna emails, other misinformation alerts have centered around drug industry profits, vaccine hesitancy, competitor issues, and discussions of Pfizer. Moderna also closely tracks elected officials against coercive vaccination policies and laws restricting vaccine mandates. \u201cPoliticians attempting to ban COVID-19 mandate<\/a>s\u2014or at least claiming to\u2014signals growing resistance to COVID-19 mitigations,\u201d reads one of the Moderna alerts.<\/p>\n

Moderna Ramps up Marking Efforts as Profit Dwindles<\/h2>\n

Now that demand for COVID-19 vaccines has dwindled, so have Moderna\u2019s earnings. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna was a 2010 startup company without an approved product before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the creation of its COVID-19 vaccine, it transformed from a struggling biotech company to a \u201chousehold name\u201d valued in 2021 at over $100 billion. The pandemic also created five new billionaires at Moderna alone, Mr. Fang told The Hill.<\/p>\n

According to company financial reports, Moderna made $18.5 billion in 2021 and $19.3 billion in total revenue<\/a> in 2022. Through the third quarter of this year, it has only made $3.9 billion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to lost profits and reduced demand, Moderna must now make royalty payments to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), formerly run by Dr. Anthony Fauci, because NIAID scientists collaborated with Moderna<\/a> to develop its COVID-19 vaccine. As a result, Moderna raised the price of its vaccine from $15\u2013$26 per dose to $130 per dose, the investigative report said.<\/p>\n

The European Patent Office also recently invalidated<\/a> one of Moderna\u2019s European patents on mRNA vaccine technology. Moderna, in 2022 filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany, alleging Pfizer and BioNTech had copied its mRNA vaccine technology. The company requested a payout based on vaccine sales during the pandemic\u2014sales of which topped $35 billion in 2022 alone. However, Pfizer and BioNTech countersued Moderna and won. Although Moderna intends to challenge the ruling, a payout would have been substantial.<\/p>\n

With evaporating profits, Moderna is relying on a “flashy new marketing campaign<\/a>” <\/strong>highlighting its mRNA technology and its ability to unlock cures for all sorts of diseases and efforts to rebrand its COVID-19 vaccine as a symbol of a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

“The most important thing for Moderna is that people keep having their jabs. Smart ads are part of that. But more important is to push back aggressively against any prevailing anti-vax narrative and engage where possible in any discussions around vaccine policy,” wrote Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson. “That\u2019s where the Moderna disinformation department comes in.”<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times has reached out to Moderna for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 12\/04\/2023 – 05:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/moderna-employs-former-fbi-analyst-ai-secretly-police-covid-vaccine-misinformation<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moderna Employs Former FBI Analyst, AI To Secretly Police COVID ‘Vaccine Misinformation’ Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), (luchschenF\/Shutterstock) Pharmaceutical giant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}