A thread about dirty lobbying in 2021.
Translating and summarizing a thread from journalist @HugoClement
We are entering textbook Edward Bernays territory here: manufacturing of consent 1.01
Important because it's about a European policy.
Some comments first. 1/15

Lobbying isn't a dirty word per se. Policy-makers are not all-knowing beings. In a complex & interdependent world, they need external input to take well-informed decisions. That's lobbying: provide information & trying to convince. But there is lobbying & lobbying. 2/15

Lobbying (or its NGO cousin, advocacy) is simply trying to influence policy-making processes outside the formal institutional decision-making process. It is formalized, recognized, (insufficiently) regulated, and it can be legitimate. 3/15

There are 2 types of lobbyists (it's more subtle than that but that will be enough now): the ones fighting for general interest causes outside the economic realm (think human rights NGO) & the ones fighting for narrow private economic interests (think big oil companies.) 4/15

If you belong to the 1st group, you're truly convinced that your ideas will make society better, you might be wrong but you're convinced. You try to present accurate data, facts to support your vision & hope decision makers will positively react to sound logical arguments. 5/15

If you belong to the 2nd group, you just want to make money.
You might present valid facts, but often it doesn't matter to you. What matters is financial return on investment. The coming story is about these. 6/15

Next week, the European Commission might ban Bonala (Benfluraline), a dangerous herbicide - as EFSA pointed out.
Big agri-business freaks out: they might lose money here. Lobbying action is needed!
They got quite creative this time. With high bullshitometer achievement. 7/15

A French YouTuber with 700k subscribers, Johan Papz, published a nicely made video on Insta, presented as genuine reporting on struggling farmers in the North of France. Surprised (not) : it's everything but genuine. It's a pure product of the big agribusiness PR work. 8/15

The content, in short, is a textbook case of their lobbying message: without that herbicide, farmers won't be able to grow their crops; and if well used, it is harmless. (Wrong.) 9/15

It's presented as emotional genuine work. The YouTuber explains he wants to help farmers thanks to his community. He mostly wants to support his own bank account: it's paid work for Interfel (a big professional agriculture organisation) & produced by a Belgian PR agency 10/15

No mention of this partnership was initially made: against Instagram rules, fooling his audience (450k viewers atm), and against any journalistic good practice (well, he's not a journalist, and Instagram is not a media...LOL.) (he now added a mention of the partnership) 11/15

Journalist @Hugo clement, managed to get hold of the brief made by the PR agency - nothing is genuine or spontaneous. Pure fiction. This is as much of a documentary as the Life of the Kardashians is. And it is directly connected to the policy-making emergency.
12/15

This part of the brief is revealing (own translation) => very much repeated in the video. 13/15

The brief insist on the need to play on 'emotion' to change the mind and opinion of young people. 14/15

That's all.
Textbook dirty lobbying, propaganda, consent manufacturing BS. That's what we are fighting against from big industries when they have sth shady to defend.
In the 60s it was bogus study centers, in the 2000s it was astroturf, now this.
Poke @corporateeurope 15/15