Shayan Sardarizadeh Profile picture
May 21, 2020 11 tweets 7 min read Read on X
I'm following the massive spike in #QudsDay after an Iranian conspiracy theorist with a history of anti-Semitic comments encouraged his followers to get it trending in a Twitter "storm" tonight. 328,000 tweets sent. BUT, only 27,000 unique accounts are engaging with the hashtag ImageImage
This means most of the traffic has been achieved by mass retweeting, in fact, 76% of it. Notice the massive drop in numbers once you exclude retweets from the traffic. 81,000 original tweets from 18,000 unique accounts. Most of the tweets are in English, not Persian ImageImageImage
The most popular tweets all came from Mr Raefipour's accounts. I previously mentioned one of his conspiracy theories in a piece I wrote about coronavirus misinformation in Iran. He has a huge following among young Iranian hardliners ImageImage
Let's look at some of the most active accounts tweeting the hashtag. 527, 512, 502, 489, 483, 459, 451, 435, 434, 392, 391 and 380 tweets from each account in less than six hours. That's not organic behaviour. But these Twitter "storms" have become so common on Iranian Twitter Image
You can see the beginning and subsequent rise of the hashtag in this GIF. Clearly, most of the traffic came from inside Iran. A second "storm" has been planned for tomorrow morning
So round two of the "storm" happened this morning. It was smaller than last night. 306,000 tweets by 30,000 unique accounts. Exclude the retweets and you end up with 55,000 tweets from 16,000 unique accounts. Once again, the hashtag was mainly driven by mass retweeting ImageImageImageImage
83% of the overall traffic was driven by retweets today, compared with 76% last night. We usually view anything more than 75-80% as a sign the traffic is not entirely organic and features some coordination. In this case, there's no doubt the hashtag was coordinated and organised Image
Let's look at the whole campaign on Thu-Fri then. 685,000 tweets. You can see the two spikes in traffic here, and the specific times of the day when it was at peak traffic. 79% of the campaign's content was made up of retweets ImageImageImage
The number of unique accounts who took part in the two storms was 53,000. Once again, all the most popular tweets came from Mr Raefipour's accounts. They were even more popular that a tweet by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's official English account ImageImageImage
Just take a look at the number of times these accounts have tweeted the hashtag, between 500 to 1,000 tweets each, all in less than 24 hours. This is clear spamming on their part to amplify the hashtag Image
Let's examine these two accounts, for instance. "reyhane" has retweeted the hashtag 1,000 times since last night. "Rey.haane" - joined Twitter in May 2020 - has done the same 777 since times last night. Both have the same profile photo and only retweet content. Coincidence? ImageImage

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More from @Shayan86

Jul 4
THREAD: There have been questions about this video published by Iranian media today, which shows a deadly Israeli strikes on Tehran's Tajrish district on 15 June, with claims that the video is AI-generated and fake.

But the video is real and can be corroborated. Here's why.
First of all, the version that first went viral was very low-res and grainy, and that was the reason for some inconsistencies that could be seen in the footage.

The higher-resolution version, published later, looks more authentic.

But how can we confirm the strike happened?
Multiple videos were published by Iranian social media users on 15 June showing the aftermath of the strike.

The first strike targeted this building (35.805264, 51.435845) on Bahonar Street, just 100 metres from the second impact.

Here's the aftermath.

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Read 10 tweets
Jun 24
THREAD: New high-res satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on 24 June show new signs of damage at the Fordo nuclear site following an attack by Israel a day after the US bombed the facility.

New craters are visible at tunnel openings and buildings have been destroyed. Image
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At Iran's Natanz enrichment facility, two craters right above the undergound buildings housing centrifuges that were visible after US strikes on 22 June have now been covered with dirt.

Before: 22 June
After: 24 June

📷@Maxar Image
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@Maxar New Maxar Technologies satellite images show previously unseen damage to tunnel entrances at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre caused by US strikes on 22 June.

Before: 20 June
After: 22 June

📷@Maxar Image
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Read 6 tweets
Jun 9
THREAD: Misinformation about Los Angeles protests

The claim in this viral tweet that US Marines have arrested the chief master sergeant of the California National Guard for opposing President Trump's orders is baseless and false.

RealRawNews is a notorious fake news website. Image
This video has racked up millions of views and been shared by Texas Senator Ted Cruz and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

While there's very real footage of LA protesters setting multiple vehicles on fire on Sunday, this particular video is from the George Floyd protests in 2020. Image
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As is often the case with major developing events, expect a surge in fake news posted by users looking to farm engagement and clout.

There are currently no reports indicating that the Mexican government is considering a military intervention over the LA protests. Image
Read 4 tweets
May 22
THREAD: What we know about Elias Rodriguez

A LinkedIn profile in Rodriguez's name suggests he’s based in Chicago and has been working at the American Osteopathic Information Association since 2024.

The profile photo bears a resemblance to the suspect arrested at the scene. Image
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Prior to that, Rodriguez appeared to work as a researcher at HistoryMakers, a research and educational institution based in Chicago that aims to preserve the African-American historical record.

This matches his staff information page on the HistoryMakers website. Image
Two online pages, one by the People's Congress of Resisatnce and the other by the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, featuring Rodriguez's name in relation to a 2017 protest in Chicago over the killing of Laquan McDonald are no longer accessible. Image
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Read 5 tweets
May 6
THREAD: As India launches strikes against Pakistan tonight, misinformation is rapidly spreading online. I'll fact-check viral falsehoods in this thread.

This video, viewed over 160,000 times, shows Israeli air strikes on Gaza in October 2023. It's unrelated to tonight's strikes. Image
https://x.com/KYLEsW0RLD/status/1712663826632483262
Be wary of online accounts using tonight's events for engagement farming by posting unrelated yet dramatic images and videos and falsely linking them to Indian strikes.

This video shows the Beirut explosion in 2020. It's unrelated to tensions between India and Pakistan. Image
This image, viewed over 150,000 times, faslely claims to show an Indian fighter jet shot down by Pakistani air defence.

The image is in fact taken from footage of an Indian MiG-29 fighter jet crashing in Barmer, Rajasthan, due to a technical fault in September 2024. Image
https://x.com/ians_india/status/1830658171817677162
Read 6 tweets
Oct 9, 2024
While Elon Musk recommends sending around X posts so people can "learn the truth", here's a thread of viral misinformation on X about Hurricane Milton.

Alex Jones baselessly claims hurricanes Milton and Helene were deliberately started by the US government as "weather weapons". Image
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This post by one of X's most prominent conspiracy theorists, viewed 4.8 million times, suggests without any evidence that Hurricane Milton is a result of geo-engineering. Image
Conspiracy theorist Stew Peters claims Hurricane Milton was pre-planned to directly hit Tampa Bay, in a post viewed 4 million times.

Obviously, Hurricane Milton is not pre-planned. No-one can plan to create hurricanes. Image
Read 7 tweets

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