Numerous social media influencers from France have revealed that they have accepted strange financial offers to spread negative propaganda about Pfizer vaccines.
They said that several agencies claiming to be from the United Kingdom had contacted them, offering them "partnership".
Léo Grasset, who has 1.17 million followers on YouTube, tweeted (in French) that he had been promised a "colossal budget" by a client "who wishes to remain anonymous."
He added that the address given to him by this agency was false.
He said that the profiles of the people who had offered this type of "partnership" were deleted after a while, but not before he realized that "they all worked in Russia."
Léo Grasset posted what he said were instructions from the agency, urging him not to use words such as “advertisement” or “sponsored video” if he were to accept the partnership offer.
“Submit the material as your own independent view,” the email said.
He also said that these people asked him to spread among his followers a false claim that the death rate among those vaccinated by Pfizer is almost three times higher than among those who received AstraZeneca.
Several other French social media influencers involved in the health and science fields said they had been contacted with a similar offer.
Et Ça Se Dit Médecin, a hospital intern with more than 85,000 Instagram followers, told France's BFMTV that he was offered €2,050 for a 30-second story on his account.
Meanwhile, French Health Minister Olivier Véran told BFMTV that he doesn't know where this [partnership offer] comes from, from France or abroad. "It's pathetic, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible and it doesn't work," he said.