Thread by @marcowenjones

🧵1/ Ok so I decided to drill down more on a core component of the #biolabs fake news.

What's fascinating about this is the clear overlap between pro-Russian propaganda and genuine Chinese officials amplifying it. Read on

#Ukraine
#disinformation

2/ So first up. A core component of the biolabs story was a key piece of disinfo.

Remember, for a good conspiracy, it helps to have scandal and perceived nefarious behaviour. It's especially good if you can make it look like your adversary is hiding something!

How though?

3/ Well it was fairly simple. It was reported by 'investigative journalist' @dgaytandzhieva around 26th Feb that the US Embassy in Kyiv had deleted documents about its biolaboratories in Ukraine.

Deletion = what are you hiding??

4/ As I have said before, this is false. The documents were never deleted. Furthermore the screenshot used by Dilyana saying 'site can't be reached' appears not to be related to the Embassy webpage. In sum, this new was false, but it went viral. +12k RTs! #Ukraine #disinformation

5/ (Incidentally, when I first mentioned this Dilyana blocked me and did not qualify or delete her tweet.) Which at the very least seems unprofessional, at the most, suspicious

6/ After Dilyana tweeted this, a number of others picked it up.

@kylenabecker blogged it March 7, saying DoD were trying to 'hide' documents

@SpokespersonCHN Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs - March 9

@zlj517 Chinese FM spokesperson - March 13

#Ukraine

7/ Below you can see how the Twitter activity has evolved over the past two weeks. Dilyana (green) is initially the main influencer of this trend, then @SpokespersonCHN picks it up (orange), then most recently @zlj517 . This resulted in tens of thousands of likes/RTs

#Ukraine

8/ I singled out these names because they are the most influential voices amplifying this conspiracy, which has also been a key point in appealing to the likes of QAnon. You can see the RT networks below

But they are not the only Chinese officials amplifying it

#disinformation

9/ Despite the fact the story was debunked days ago, some officials are still spreading it. E.g. The Chinese Consul General in Belfast has also repeated it, as has the Chinese Consul in Lebanon (today!)- at least in English, not sure about other languages.

#Ukraine

10/ So regardless of veracity, the story is still going on. This 'what is the US trying to hide' narrative (see below) is explicitly being used to bolster the conspiratorial nature of the story, & a lot of the most influential people spreading it in English are Chinese diplomats

11 / So TLDR is; Chinese diplomats, who, like most diplomats, rarely stray from an official line, are demonstrably propagating a fake story popularized by an unaffiliated pro-Russian journalist, and fueling the biolab conspiracy.
#UkraineRussiaWar
#disinformation

12/ Some notes, this analysis involved around 7600 interactions on Twitter involving around 6700 unique accounts, mostly sent between 5-14th March. That's it for now. Peace

#disinformation
#Ukraine

13/ oh yes, this is the link to the US Embassy in Kyiv where you can see all the 'deleted' documents ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/kyiv/s…

14/ interesting that links may have been down for an unspecified amount of time. Of course doesn't explain failure to correct narrative or cease it on the part of those involved

15/ Thanks @NadineNonny for pointing this out. Chinese state media is also spreading the deleted documents story in Arabic - group has over 15million likes