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The US military used fake social media accounts to spread propaganda that was designed to discredit China\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic, according to a bombshell report from <\/em><\/a>. The anti-vax campaign ran from spring 2020 until mid-2021, and was intended to \u201ccounter what [the Pentagon] perceived as China\u2019s growing influence in the Philippines,\u201d the publication found in its investigation. The Philippines saw low vaccination rates through 2021 even months after China\u2019s Sinovac vaccine arrived in the area, and recorded nearly 50,000 COVID deaths by November of that year.<\/p>\n In one example of the US\u2019s anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters<\/em>, an account in 2020 tweeted, \u201cCOVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don\u2019t trust China!\u201d The campaign also pushed the narrative that China\u2019s vaccines were \u201charam\u201d \u2014 or forbidden under Islamic law \u2014 because of a pig derivative in the ingredients.<\/p>\n Former military officials who spoke with Reuters<\/em> said the Pentagon had propaganda accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram, and was warned in late 2020 by Facebook executives that the accounts had been identified and were acting in violation of the platform\u2019s policies. Some of these accounts, however, ultimately weren\u2019t taken down after the Pentagon said it would stop using them for its anti-vax campaign. Reuters<\/em> notified X of at least 300 accounts it found during its investigation that appeared to be part of the operation. These were determined to be bots and removed.<\/p>\n According to Reuters<\/em>, the campaign was launched after the Chinese government made unfounded claims that the COVID-19\u2019s spread could be traced back to the US. In a statement to the publication, a Pentagon spokesperson brought up China\u2019s disinformation campaign, and said the military \u201cuses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the U.S., allies, and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n