Google,
Facebook, and Twitter's Conflict of Interest in Vaccines
Main investors in Social Media
Platforms are
major investors in Vaccine Industry (1)
Can we expect them to become unbiased "fact checkers" about
vaccines?
Disclaimer
Originally published on
January 2nd, 2021
A
guest document by Ricardo de Valencia
INTRODUCTION
Google, Facebook and Twitter, along with other so-called "social"
media platforms, are giant machines driven not by simple altruism, but
by
financial interests first and foremost. Therefore, to know the
direction in which they really move, it would be very informative to
know their sources of income and their sources of financing.
Since they are essentially free platforms, it is quite obvious that
their income must be mainly through advertising. As the pharmaceutical
industry is a major advertiser, social media platforms must inevitably
have a
bias in reporting or censoring information about pharmaceutical
products and, particularly, those related to vaccines.
The information bias caused by the interest of not harming their
advertisers is an interesting issue, but what we are going to examine
in this document are the financial sources. Who are the investors of
Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Using publicly available information,
it is possible to reveal that the largest investors
in these companies are also investors in the vaccine industry.
DETAILS
Much is said about the famous personalities behind Google, Facebook and
Twitter - people like Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey -
but,
among the biggest investors, in those companies are also institutional
investors - companies or organizations that invest money on
behalf of clients or members.
Some of the major institutional
shareholders behind Google, Facebook and Twitter are
also great investors in the vaccine industry: (2)
* Vanguard
Group, an investment company with over $64 billion in vaccine
industry shares, is the largest institutional shareholder in Facebook,
Alphabet
(the
parent company of YouTube and Google) and Twitter, with $84.7 billion
worth of shares between all the three media companies.
* Another
investment company, BlackRock,
has at least $50 billion
worth of shares in vaccine-related companies. At
the same
time, it is one of the largest institutional shareholders of the
Facebook-Google-Twitter trio, with the sum of its investment in all
three reaching a value of more than $75 billion.
* The
investment company FMR (Fidelity)
also stands out. It is the major institutional shareholder of the
vaccination
companies Regeneron and Moderna, with a value of at least 9.5 billion
dollars between the two. This company is the third largest
institutional shareholder
of Facebook and the fifth largest institutional shareholder of
Alphabet, with an investment value of
more
than 32 billion and 11 billion dollars,
respectively.
* The investment companies Geode
and Northern Trust also have a
large volume of shares simultaneously in the Google-Facebook-Twitter
trio and in many vaccine companies. Together with those related to
Vanguard and BlackRock, we are speaking of these vaccine companies: Pfizer, Moderna,
Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Inovio, Regeneron,
Vaxart, Vir Biotechnology, Heat Biologics and Gilead. (See
Appendix for details)
Despite the great voting power in the hands of a few individuals
controlling the media platforms (as in
the case of Facebook- with Zuckerberg - and Alphabet - with Larry Page
and Sergey Brin) (3),
there is no doubt that the amounts of money invested by the major
institutional shareholders - in
the order of tens of billions of dollars in both fields - poses
an enormous conflict of interest that may have a significant influence
on the policies of the social media platforms towards vaccines.
From the investors' point of view: If you have tens of billions of
dollars invested in vaccine companies and, at the same time, you are
investing large amounts of money in global media platforms, then what
is expected in the business world is that you will do your best to make
sure that the media platforms do not spread information that will ruin
your vaccine business.
From the point of view of social platforms: In light of the information
presented here, if you were a manager of Facebook, Google or Twitter,
would you consent to spread information that negatively affects
vaccines, harming your biggest investors? Wouldn't you feel "subtly
encouraged" to implement in your platform censorship policies to block
any opinion or information contrary to the promotion of vaccines?
Some more
assorted facts
There are some more facts, as far as we know:
* Verily, a
subsidiary of Alphabet (Google's
parent company), teams with the pharma industry to conduct
drug and vaccine
clinical trials. (4)
* In 2016, Alphabet inked a $715 million deal with
GlaxoSmithKline to
create Galvani, another
venture to develop bioelectronic medicines and
vaccines and to mine
medical information from Google customers. (5)
* Google's Customer Services President, Mary Ellen Coe, sits on
Merck's
board (6).
As of October 2020, Merck is developing two separate potential
coronavirus vaccines.
(7)
* In 2018, Google invested $27 million in Vaccitech to make
vaccines
for flu, MERS, and prostate cancer. In 2020, Vaccitech started work on
a COVID vaccine. (5)
* Facebook and Google hired "FactChecker"
(Politifact) to censor
vaccine
misinformation. Politifact was launched by a grant from the
Gates Foundation, the world's
largest vaccine
promoter. (5)
* Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellman, who was (until October 2019) the
lead
director of the committee in charge of making Facebook policy, served
also as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation from 2014-2020. (8)
In case someone doesn't know or doesn't remember, Instagram and
WhatsApp are owned by Facebook (9),
and many people use Instagram as a source of news (10).
YouTube and Google, as we said
before, are subsidiaries of the same
company, Alphabet (11).
Another major search engine, Bing,
belongs to Microsoft, which, as
everyone knows, is linked to Bill Gates, one of the world's largest
sponsors of vaccines (12).
Pinterest and Snapchat, which many people use to
get news (10),
also have
institutional shareholders who at the same time have large investments
in the vaccine industry (see Appendix).
CONCLUSION
There you have it: Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp,
Pinterest, Snapchat, Google and Bing - Are they in a fair
position to be the watchdogs against vaccine "disinformation"?
Are they really in a fair position to build policies for objective and unbiased
filtering of information and news about vaccines? Is there not, rather, a motivation for
their information filters to be diverted towards the promotion of
vaccines? And, in particular, toward the promotion of the
Covid-19 vaccines, regardless of any scientifically
based claims that may exist?
APPENDIX
Please
note that we are referring here to institutional investors,
apart from personal investors. (3)
NOTE: The
figures in
the following tables have been obtained from financial
information available at finance.yahoo.com
as of December 5th, 2020, from this links: Facebook
| Alphabet
| Twitter
| Pinterest
| Snapchat
| Johnson&Johnson
| Pfizer
| Gilead
| Regeneron
| Moderna
| Novavax
| Vir
Biotechnology | Inovio
| Vaxart
| Heat
Biologics. Rounding has been applied in the first decimal
place of billions (for example, $48,532,919,210 is rounded up to $48.5B)
Table
1
Top 3 Institutional Holders of each
Media Company
|
# 1
|
# 2
|
# 3
|
| Facebook |
Vanguard (7.71%)
|
BlackRock (6.59%)
|
FMR (5.16%)
|
| Alphabet |
Vanguard (6.73%)
|
BlackRock (6.07%)
|
Price Assoc. (4.06%)
|
| Twitter |
Vanguard (10.20%)
|
Morgan Stanley (7.55%)
|
BlackRock (7.30%)
|
| Pinterest |
Vanguard (7.92%)
|
BlackRock (4.64%)
|
Flossbach v.S. (3.33%)
|
| Snapchat |
Price Assoc. (9.20%)
|
Vanguard (6.94%)
|
Edgewood M.C. (6.09%)
|
NOTES
Alphabet: the company who owns Google and YouTube
Snapchat: properly, the company is Snap and the product Snapchat
Vanguard: The Vanguard Group, Inc., not including
related Mutual Funds
Table
2
Participation
quota of major Institutional Investors in
Social Media Platforms (Part 1)
|
Vanguard
|
BlackRock
|
FMR
|
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Facebook
|
7.71% |
$48.5B |
6.59% |
$41.5B
|
5.16% |
$32.5B
|
Alphabet
|
6.73% |
$32.6B |
6.07% |
$29.4B
|
2.33% |
$11.3B
|
Twitter
|
10.20% |
$3.6B |
7.30% |
$2.6B
|
1.44% |
$0.5B
|
Pinterest
|
7.92% |
$1.7B |
4.64% |
$1.0B
|
n.a.
|
n.a.
|
Snapchat
|
6.94% |
$2.2B |
4.43% |
$1.4B
|
1.33% |
$0.4B
|
TOTAL
|
|
$88.6B
|
|
$75.9B
|
|
$44.7B
|
NOTES
Vanguard: The Vanguard Group, Inc., not including
related Mutual Funds
Please note: $48.5B = 48.5 billion dollars (1 billion = 1 000 000 000)
n.a. = information absent or not accessible in
the original source
Table
3
Participation
quota of major Institutional Investors in
Social Media Platforms (Part 2)
|
Geode
|
Northern
Trust |
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Facebook
|
1.53% |
$9.7B
|
1.18% |
$7.5B
|
Alphabet
|
1.34% |
$6.5B
|
1.21% |
$5.9B
|
Twitter
|
1.58% |
$0.6B
|
1.50% |
$0.5B
|
Pinterest
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Snapchat
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
TOTAL
|
|
$16.8B
|
|
$13.9B
|
NOTES
Please note: $9.7B = 9.7 billion dollars (1 billion = 1 000 000 000)
n.a. = information absent or not accessible in
the original source
Table
4
Participation
quota of selected Institutional Investors in Vaccine Companies (Part 1)
|
Vanguard
|
BlackRock |
FMR |
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Shares
|
Value
|
Shares
|
Value
|
| Johnson&Johnson |
8.70% |
$34.1B |
7.36% |
$28.8B |
n.a.
|
n.a. |
Pfizer
|
8.12% |
$16.6B |
7.46% |
$15.2B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
| Gilead |
8.19% |
$6.5B |
9.40% |
$7.4B |
n.a. |
n.a. |
| Regeneron |
7.62% |
$4.5B |
9.34% |
$5.5B |
12.13% |
$7.1B |
Moderna
|
7.04% |
$2.0B |
5.11% |
$1.4B
|
8.65%
|
$2.4B
|
Novavax
|
8.53% |
$0.6B |
6.75% |
$0.5B
|
1.69% |
$0.1B
|
| Vir
Biotechnology |
4.34% |
$0.4B |
3.20% |
$0.1B |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Inovio
|
5.52% |
$0.1B |
8.09% |
$0.2B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
Vaxart
|
4.56% |
<$0.1B |
3.90% |
<$0.1B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
Heat Biologics
|
3.79% |
<$0.1B |
1.51% |
<$0.1B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
TOTAL
|
|
$64.8B
|
|
$59.1B
|
|
$9.6B
|
NOTES
Vanguard: The Vanguard Group, Inc., not including
related Mutual Funds
Please note: $34.1B = 34.1 billion dollars (1 billion = 1 000
000
000)
n.a. = information absent or not accessible in
the original source
Table
5
Participation
quota of selected Institutional Investors in Vaccine Companies (Part 2)
|
Geode |
Northern
Trust
|
|
Shares |
Value |
Shares |
Value |
| Johnson&Johnson |
1.50% |
$5.9B |
1.28% |
$5.0B |
Pfizer
|
1.61% |
$3.3B
|
1.23% |
$2.5B
|
| Gilead |
0.59% |
$1.3B |
1.26% |
$1.0B |
| Regeneron |
1.68% |
$1.0B |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Moderna
|
0.85% |
$0.2B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
Novavax
|
1.41% |
<$0.1B
|
1.14% |
<$0.1B
|
Vir
Biotechnology
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Inovio
|
1.41% |
<$0.1B
|
1.13% |
<$0.1B
|
Vaxart
|
1.07% |
<$0.1B
|
n.a. |
n.a. |
Heat Biologics
|
0.59% |
<$0.1B
|
0.17% |
<$0.1B
|
TOTAL
|
|
$11.7B
|
|
$8.5B
|
NOTES
Please note: $5.9B = 5.9 billion dollars (1 billion = 1 000 000 000)
n.a. = information absent or not accessible in
the original source
NOTES
(1) We are referring, in
particular, to Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Snapchat and Google.
Although we do not have researched the investors of Microsoft, the
Microsoft search engine Bing undoubtedly
has to be, in vaccine-related matters, under the shadow of Bill Gates,
one of the world's major vaccine promoters.
(2) Source of data on
shareholding: see APPENDIX.
(3)
Institutional shareholders and the voting power of some individual
shareholders:
Between the shareholders, there
are
companies (like Vanguard Group, BlackRock, etc.)
and there are individuals (like Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, etc.).
Here we are giving figures of the former while, if one makes an
internet search of "who owns such and such a company", most of the time
one will find listings of the latter (for example, this
list).
In the case of Alphabet and Facebook, a few individuals have special
shares which give 10 times the voting power of the shares available to
regular investors. This makes possible, for example, that Zuckerberg
controls the majority of voting shares despite not owning a majority of
the company (as told here).
In the case of Alphabet, thanks to "super-voting"
stocks, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have 51% of all votes despite not
owning the
majority of the shares. (The logic of such a situation is very well
explained here)
(4) Verily teams with the
pharma industry to conduct
drug and vaccine
clinical trials: Source 1,
Source
2, Source
3
(5) Robert
F. Kennedy, Jr. claims that "YouTube’s owner, Google, is effectively a
vaccine company"
(6) Google's
Customer Services President, Mary Ellen Coe, sits on Merck's board
(7) As
of October 2020, Merck is developing two separate potential coronavirus
vaccines
(8) Dr. Susan
Desmond-Hellman serving in Facebook policy committee and in the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation
(9) Facebook acquired
Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 - Facebook
bought WhatsApp for $16 billion in 2014
(10) Social
media activities on select social networks by social media users in the
United States in February 2019 - According to that study, the
amount of respondents using each of the media platforms for getting
news was: Instagram 18%, Facebook 38%, Snapchat 17%, Pinterest 9%,
Twitter 56%. These
percentages are not to be added. The figure of 18% Instagram,
for example, means that, to the question "Do you use Instagram for
getting news?" 18% of respondents answered affirmatively.
(11) Five
companies owned by Alphabet
(12) For example: The Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation collaborates with the WHO (World Health
Organization) "to increase
coordination across the international vaccine community and create a
Global Vaccine Action Plan" (Source).
Companies that have received donations that in turn made
money for the Gates Foundation include Merck, Novartis and
GlaxoSmithKline (Source).
Published on January 2nd, 2021
In Spanish: El
conflicto de intereses de Google, Facebook y Twitter en relación
con las vacunas
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