Thread by @vatniksoep_nl

Ok this will be a thread about fighting back against fake accounts who pretend to be NAFO or Ukrainian soldiers. There are a few simple strategies we as a community can use to deal with this problem. I will start simple and then expand to more complex contexts.👇🧵

I started this thread because of a "NAFO account" making a racist remark towards new NAFO member @blaqsauce_ . It's a contradiction of what NAFO stands for. But then I immediately was suspicious. While some edgelords do infiltrate NAFO, most of such occasions it's a fake account.

🇷🇺 has tried to defame NAFO from the get go. I started with charachter assassinations on founder @Kama_Kamilia but as NAFO is a decentralised org it had little effect. Then NAFO was branded a CIA operation but NAFO members just leaned into it changing locations to Langley.

Then Russia tried to defame NAFO by letting their German neo nazi friends AfD do an official inquiry into NAFO by the 🇩🇪 government. But still nothing stuck.
Russia then used accounts to infiltrate NAFO circles, to damage its reputation, create chaos, confusion and infighting.

It's important we as a community don't fall for this. When having a look at the account it had numerous red flags. When clicking on the joining date: as you can see the claimed location Sweden doesn't correspond with based location being Turkey.

There are other things that can indicate higher likelyness off a fake account when combined. In this case

- joined after 2024
- few followers
- doesn't follow or repost NAFO or pro Ukraine
- AI avatar
- few followers
- little activity
- name changes

To expand a little about the joining date Russia and pro Russian botfarms mainly use accounts made after 2022, but there are exceptions, Russia also made big batches of accounts in 2024 and 2016. If you see these dates combined with dormant behaviour between 2014 and 2022.

Swedish member @Team_SNAFU remarked that the account while being based in Turkey could still be of a Swede, but then you got to look at who this account follows. X automatically offers you accounts of your own country to join when you are new, this one had none.

So then it becomes more interesting because we see the typical kind of follow behaviour of a random bored IT person, which would explain the set up of a fake account ran by a botfarm or scammer.

But let's not stop there because it gets more interesting, who does this account get followed by. Other fake accounts, BINGO. Here is where you really can do damage, not less than followed by four fake Ukrainian soldier accounts! All Nigerian.

So you can report those for impersantion, sometimes also for image theft. There's a special account called @ScamBustersHQ that can help you. When it comes down to NAFO fake accounts inform @DucuGavril or official NAFO account.

I once identified a whole network of thousands of accounts that were all following a fake vatniksoup account mimicking @P_Kallioniemi, we took it down with the community. NAFO always takes out the trash! We're a Legion and we don't mess around! Please share.

@tasha_tsuman @T_Krawchenko @blaqsauce_ @Team_SNAFU

@cabbage_content