Facebook on Tuesday said it shut down a disinformation operation which sought to spread COVID-19 vaccine hoaxes by duping social media influencers into backing false claims.

The leading social network labeled the operation a “disinformation laundromat” which sought to legitimize false claims by pushing them through people with clean reputations.

Influencers who caught onto the sham turned out to be the undoing of a deceitful influence campaign orchestrated by marketing firm Fazze in Russia, according to Facebook.

“The assumption was the influencers wouldn’t do any of their own homework, but two did,” Facebook global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo said while briefing journalists.

“It’s really a warning — be careful when someone is trying to spoon feed you a story. Do your own research.”

Facebook said that in July it removed 65 accounts at the leading social network and 243 accounts at photo-centric Instagram that were linked to the campaign, and banned Fazze from its platform.

Fazze is a subsidiary of a AdNow, an advertising company registered in Britain, according to media reports.

The operation targeted primarily India and Latin America, but also took aim at the United States, as governments debated approving vaccines to fight the pandemic, according to Nimmo.

Late last year, the network of fake accounts tried to fuel a false meme that the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 would turn people into chimpanzees, Facebook reported.

After going quiet for five months, the organizers attacked the safety of the Pfizer vaccine and leaked what it billed as an AstraZeneca document stolen by hacking, Facebook said.

The campaign took advantage of online platforms including Reddit, Medium, Change.org, and Facebook, creating misleading articles and petitions then providing “influencers” with links, hashtags and more to spread vaccine misinformation, according to Nimmo.

“In effect, this campaign functioned as a cross-platform disinformation laundromat,” Nimmo said.

Campaign fell flat

The operation was exposed by influencers in France and Germany who questioned claims made in email pitches from Fazze, prompting journalists to dig into the matter, according to Facebook.

Facebook does not know who hired Fazze for the anti-vaccine campaign, but has shared its findings with regulators, police, and internet industry peers, according to head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

The campaign appeared to fall flat, with almost none of the Instagram posts receiving “likes,” and English and Hindi language petitions at Change.org each getting fewer than 1,000 signatures, Facebook said.

The security team at the social network has seen a trend of deceptive influence operations targeting multiple social media platforms and trying to recruit established personalities with followings to spread false messages, according to Gleicher.

“When these operations turn to influencers, they often don’t give them full context on who is behind it,” Gleicher said during the briefing.

“And when influencers find out, they are eager to blow the whistle.”

The news comes amid a spat between Facebook and the US administration over reining in virus misinformation, and government efforts to enlist popular social media characters to promote vaccinations.

— AFP

The US economy regained a massive 916,000 jobs in March, the biggest increase since August, with nearly a third of the increase in the hard-hit leisure and hospitality sector, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The rise in hiring pushed the unemployment rate down to 6.0 per cent from 6.2 per cent in February.

However, even as the economy begins to recover from the COVID-19 shutdowns, employment is still 8.4 million jobs lower than the pre-pandemic peak, the report said.

The gain in nonfarm payrolls, which far exceeded the consensus estimate among economists, reflects the accelerating recovery as vaccinations become more widespread.

And with upward revisions to hiring in the first two months of 2021, employment in January and February combined was 156,000 higher than previously reported, the report said.

Hiring was widespread in manufacturing, construction and education, but leisure and hospitality which bore the brunt of the shutdowns topped the list, regaining 280,000 — 176,000 of those in restaurants and bars.

Labor economist Diane Swonk of Grant Thornton almost exactly predicted the blockbuster report. She said before the release that the rebound was due to “ramping up vaccinations, lifting restrictions on indoor venues and reopening schools for in-person learning combined with spring break” and increased air travel.

But the data show there are still scars from the pandemic damage: Black unemployment remains little changed at 9.6 per cent, and average hourly earnings fell by 4 cents to $29.96, reflecting rehiring of lower wage workers who bring down the average.

In addition, there are nearly six million more workers now than before the pandemic who either are working part time because they cannot find a full time position, or are on the sidelines because they have not been able to find work, the report said.

— AFP