French and German social media influencers with millions of followers reveal they were offered thousands of dollars to post fake negative stories about Pfizer's vaccine by Russian linked advertising agency
French and German YouTubers with millions of social media followers say they were contacted by a mysterious ad agency to spread disinformation about the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
Léo Grasset runs a YouTube channel called 'Dirty Biology', on which he presents scientific topics in a humorous manner.
Grasset was contacted by an unknown man who went by Anton, offering him thousands of dollars to make TikTok or Instagram videos disparaging the Pfizer vaccine.
The man wanted Grasset to tell his followers the untrue claim that Pfizer's vaccine is three times as deadly as the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Guardian reports that the group that contacted Grasset is linked to Russian hackers who stole data from the European Medicines Agency.
Leo Grasset runs a YouTube channel titles "Dirty Biology" where he discusses scientific topics in a humorous manner. He was asked by an unknown organization to smear the Pfizer vaccine.
Grasset says he was never told the identity of those asking him to make the smear, only that the person offering him money was named "Anton" and that they worked for a London based agency called "Fazze". The Associated Press could not find any official record of the agency, and they did not respond when contacted
Anton never revealed his identity to Grasset, but did say he had a considerable budget for an 'informational campaign' about the vaccines.
'They wanted me to talk about the Pfizer vaccine in a way that would be detrimental to the Pfizer vaccine reputation,' Grasset told the Associated Press.
He said the disinformation effort drives home the need for people 'to be super, super cautious' about what they see online.
'We creators on YouTube, on internet, Instagram, et cetera, we are at the center of something going on like an information war,' he added.
'We, as creators, need to set our standards really high because it's, I think, just the beginning.'
Grasset was told that if he makes the video, not to disclose it as a paid advertisement.
Instead, Anton wanted him to pretend the video was organic content he chose to make on his own volition.
A trainee doctor in southern France with tens of thousands of followers who was also approached for the smear effort told French broadcaster BFMTV that he was also contacted to smear the vaccine.
He was offered more than 2,000 euros ($3,000) for a 30-second video post.
Mirko Drotschman, a German YouTuber with over 1.5 million subscribers, says he was also contacted by the group.
Grasset was never given an exact figure to make the video, though he estimates the number would have been in the tens-of-thousands of dollars due to his large following.
Olivier Veran, France's health minister, called the attempted smear 'pathetic' and 'dangerous'. More than 30 million Francs have been vaccinated as of Tuesday
The smear effort drew a withering response from French Health Minister Olivier Veran.
'It's pathetic, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible and it doesn't work,' he said.
The person who contacted Grasset said he works for an advertising agency called Fazze.
A website for Fazze used to give a London address but that had been scrubbed from the site on Tuesday.
Companies House, where British firms are registered, has no record of Fazze.
Currently, the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are all available in France, with the first three being available in almost all European countries.
More than 30 million residents of France have been vaccinated as of Tuesday afternoon.
Pfizer did not immediately respond when reached out to by The Daily Mail for comment.
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