A private social network created by the firm hosts personal details of over 500 individuals globally
Source: The Wire | By Sarasvati Thuppadolla, Margot Gibbs and Elena DeBre | Oct 1, 2024
Mumbai/ London/Athens: A US-based reputation management firm, which received funding from the United States government, is working to combat opposition to pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops by secretly profiling critics, both across the world and in India. This is revealed in documents obtained by the investigative newsroom Lighthouse Reports and shared with The Wire and other international media partners.
The firm spearheading this work is Missouri-based v-Fluence Interactive, founded and run by a former Monsanto executive, Jay Byrne, who previously worked as a communications executive at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Since its creation in 2001, v-Fluence has provided a range of services including “in depth research, ongoing intelligence gathering, proprietary data-mining and analytics” to the global agrochemical and biotechnology industry.
The current investigation by Lighthouse Reports, in partnership with The Wire, uncovered that v-Fluence created a private social network that hosts profiles of over 500 individuals globally, including prominent Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, ecologist Debal Deb and other individuals including scientists and academics.
Access to the network is invite-only. Its members include agrochemical and biotechnology industry employees and allies from around the world, including India. This has raised concerns among some Indians profiled by v-Fluence about how their data might be used, highlighting potential risks to privacy.
Scientists also remarked how “critically profiling” activists and scientists is detrimental to scientific temper in a democracy like India, especially at a time when there is ‘general hostility’ towards civil service organisations.
In an email statement to Lighthouse Reports, v-Fluence founder Byrne said that the allegations of his network secretly profiling individuals who have spoken out against pesticides and their unregulated use are “grossly misleading representations” and “manufactured falsehoods”. v-Fluence also denied having held government contracts now or in the past, but said that the US government was a “funder of other organisations with whom we work.”
Corporate links
Documents obtained during this investigation reveal that the Missouri firm is profiling activists and scientists who have been vocal against pesticides and their unregulated use. Termed “Bonus Eventus”, the private, invite-only social network has a “wiki” with profiles of “stakeholders” that contains information of over 3,000 organisations and individuals including environmental advocates, scientists, politicians, civil servants, UN human rights experts and others who have criticised or opposed pesticides and/or GM crops.
The profiles even contain details of peoples’ private lives which are extraneous to their work, such as their home addresses and the value of their home. Many of the profiles also contain a “criticisms” section and are often derogatory in nature, citing articles often authored by people connected to the chemical industry.
v-Fluence also has links to corporate pesticide giants such as Syngenta which is currently facing a lawsuit in the US, with Byrne and v-Fluence as co-defendants. The lawsuit was filed by farmers with Parkinson’s disease who have alleged that their illness was caused by the company’s paraquat herbicide. They accuse Syngenta and v-Fluence of suppressing negative information on the dangers of paraquat, working to “neutralise” those who criticise it, and investigating the social media pages of people who reported injuries to Syngenta’s crisis hotline.
Syngenta has denied the allegations. Syngenta said that they “do not support the claim of a causal link between exposure to paraquat and the development of Parkinson’s disease” when the authors approached it about the issue as part of the current investigation. The company declined to answer further questions as the issue is still under “active litigation”.
In a written statement to Lighthouse Reports and its partners, Byrne denied the allegations of the lawsuit, saying they were based on claims which were “manufactured and false”.
Paraquat, which is cheap and widely available, remains legal in India despite demands from campaigners and doctors to ban it because of its impacts on human health. In fact, a 2017 study from South India even recommended that the availability of this “highly toxic substance [paraquat] be restricted so as to prevent its misuse as a method of suicide”.
Every year pesticides kill thousands in India. In 2022 alone, the country reported 7,410 accidental deaths by pesticide poisoning according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Syngenta came under fire after the Yavatmal pesticide poisonings in Maharashtra in 2017. More than 20 farmers lost their lives after being exposed to pesticide poisoning. Farmers alleged that Syngenta had failed to provide sufficient information regarding the risks of its pesticide ‘Polo’. Syngenta, however, has maintained that there’s no evidence that its products caused this tragedy.
Privacy rights at risk
Shiva, who visited Yavatmal after the deaths in 2017, blamed the GM-crop Bt Cotton for the deaths. She said that the use of Bt Cotton led to more pesticides being sprayed on the crops. Shiva is one of the seven Indians profiled by v-Fluence.
The over 8000-word profile on Shiva, who actively advocates for seed sovereignty, describes her as an “ardent opponent of plant biotechnology”. It adds that Shiva opposes “even research field trials and supporting act of economic sabotage to destroy GMOs in the laboratories or in the fields”.
When informed about this, she wrote that she wasn’t surprised, adding that she has been challenging the “Poison Cartel’s war” for four decades.
Shiva’s profile lays out her biographical details, as well as personal information such as her email address, family members, registration details of her personal website, funders, speculative content about her sources of income and an extensive criticisms section including critiques by proponents of GM crops and biotechnology.
The profile claims that Shiva “reportedly commands high fees for her numerous annual speaking engagements” and that her “resources are likely significantly higher given reported activities (travel, sponsorships of major protests, running the Navdanya organic farm and education centre, etc.)”. It adds that such financial support “likely comes from a variety of sources that go to her various ‘non-profits’ or as direct payments to Shiva”.
Although the profiles include citations for most excerpts, indicating that the information is publicly available online, there are concerns about potential infringement of the individuals’ data protection rights under India’s yet to be implemented privacy law.
Originally published in The Wire, please click here to read more.