Thread by @marcowenjones

Thread / Major pro-Putin troll klaxon reveal! Some of you who read my thread the other day will remember one of the most influential tweets on the 'i stand with putin' hashtag. It was by @Dr_Adhira and had +12k likes & +5k RTs

#UkraineUnderAttaсk
#disinformation

2/ 'Her' tweet was unequovical support for Putin. She also called Zelensky a clown. So strong words. At the time I said her profile picture looked like a stock photo, but could not confirm it.

Well now I can...

#Disinformation
#UkraineRussianWar

3/ Yandex and Google returned nothing, but a reverse image search on Bing led me to the same person, but in a slightly different pose...

#disinformation

4/ The Bing result led to a page for a Pakistani gynecologist in Lahore. It was used as an avatar for some feedback.

5/ I took a stab in the dark and went to shutter stock and by searching for indian OR pakistani + woman + mask and got the same woman without the blue jumper. I examined the contributor and presto, found our Dr.

#UkraineRussianWar #DisinformationWar

6/ The eagle eyed among you will notice Dr_Adhira's picture is flipped on the vertical access. This is a common tactic in influence operations as it makes reverse image searches more difficult. Remember the old addage, only the guilty flip their images!

7/ So basically, a propaganda/disinfo account, with few followers, few tweets, but a really influential pro-Putin tweet. Remember, and I can't stress this enough, she's probably one of hundreds/thousands. Probs some call centre style operation

Oh yeah, and look who she follows

note. I know I spelled axis and adage wrong 😬😁

This is a similar thread, but funnier #Ukraine #UkraineRussianWar