
US Government Paid PR Firm to Track and Vilify Critics of GMOs and Pesticides
November 02, 2024 | Source: GM Watch | by Jonathan Matthews and Claire Robinson
Covert PR operations involving the secret profiling of over 3,000 people and organisations considered “critics” of the pesticide industry recently made headlines around the world. The secret profiles, including ones on GMWatch and its co-directors, are said to include private and personal, even intimate, information that lawyers say violate privacy laws in several countries and regions, such as the UK, the European Union, Kenya and India. They also include false, misleading and malicious claims (examples below), clearly designed to damage the reputations of those targeted.
This was all uncovered during a year-long in-depth investigation led by Lighthouse Reports, a Netherlands-based consortium of journalists that work on collaborative public interest investigations with the world’s leading media. The main breakthrough came when the investigators managed to penetrate the private social network, known as Bonus Eventus, where the profiles were being shared. This enabled them to not only access these secret dossiers, but to identify the Bonus Eventus network’s members and work out exactly who had done the profiling.
In response to the news, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an organisation which defends independent journalism and fights against propaganda and disinformation, has called for all those involved in the profiling to be brought to justice.