So counted approximately 90 tweets from @FDD 's Ben Weinthal within a period of around 48 hours. Mostly scurrilous accusations and loaded questions with baseless accusations of homophobia or supporting the execution of gay people.
2/ Perhaps the fundamental and dangerous irony of @BenWeinthal attack is that is potentially endangers minorities while masquerading as a defence of gay rights.
3/ Amid this harassment, Weinthal stated that he is a “journalist who reports on the persecution and murders of people from the LGBTQ community in MENA”.
4/ However, If you believe that members of the LGBTQ community are at risk in a particular country, & constantly bait someone living in that country to enter a debate that you believe to be potentially life-threatening, then you are showing reckless disregard for their safety
5/ Furthermore, and especially if you do not know the sexuality of whomever you are interrogating, you also risk endangering a person of the community whose rights you claim to be defending by drawing attention to their stance on what you have highlighted as being
6/ a controversial issue at least, a life-and-death situation at worse issue. I for one have no qualms condemning and desiring the abolition of the death penalty in every country in the world, including Qatar, which has never executed anyone for homosexuality.
7. It is also not clear why Weinthal is asking for my opinions on LGBTQ issues, I am not an academic expert on the topic. Despite that, I am a strong LGBTQ ally, so it is ironic and suspect that Weinthal is attacking me
8. But I think the @FDD should be concerned they have a fellow who is engaging in this bizarre and potentially harmful behaviour
9/ Finally thought it was interesting that in 2015 @BenWeinthal asked why US embassy in Saudi, UAE and Qatar didn't hoist a pride flag. Well here's a photo from the US embassy in Qatar in 2018.
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🧵 'At least 1,800 bots on the social media site X are promoting the controversial choice of Azerbaijan, a major oil and gas producer, to host next month’s ...#COP29, according to a new analysis shared exclusively with The Washington Post".
2/ The analysis by Marc Owen Jones, an expert on disinformation at @NUQatar, focused on roughly 2,800 X accounts that collectively sent around 10,800 tweets, retweets and replies about the conference between Oct. 17 and Oct. 24.
3/ Detection
73% of all accounts active in sample created in the space of 3 quarters in 2024.
Conservative estimates suggest 66% (1876) accounts in the sample are fake (bots) based on activity over the past week
🧵1/ There is a dis/misinfo campaign targeting Ariane Tabatabai, a deputy assistant secretary within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. On 22 Oct, Sky News Arabia said a Pentagon official told them that Tabatabai leaked information about Israel's planned attack on Iran.
2/ There is no evidence to substantiate this. Even the Pentagon have denied it. @jengriffinfnc from Fox News followed up with Tabatabai who, contrary to reports, was at work as usual. The Pentagon denied that the information reported by Sky News Arabia was true.
4/ Despite this, dozens of outlets have published this story, but the soul basis of their story is the Sky News Arabia report. Here's just a selection of those outlets - @dwnews @ynetnews @Jerusalem_Post @firstpost @IranIntl_En @News18India
🧵🚨(1/16) In Oct 2023, Billboard emerged across Lebanon with the slogan “Lebanon does not want war.” While seemingly neutral on the surface, the campaign was part of a multimillionaire dollar info op designed to frame Hezbollah as chief antagonists (as opposed Israel)
(2/16) The campaign was attributed to an anonymous "coalition of Lebanese youth and businessmen". The only name that could be connected, was one Gina Al Khazen, working out of the UAE (According to SharqAlAwsat). Some of the billboards bore the branding 'One Peace Global'
(3/16) But OPG was a front. The OPG Facebook page ran over 87 ads, pushing its 'peace' narrative. OPG claimed activities in Ukraine and Africa but lacked any substantial proof. The page even attempted to backdate its posts to make it look active in 2022 #Lebanon
🧵Kind of curious why it looks like @TRobinsonNewEra has done a video about Qatar that looks like it was produced by @visegrad24, but without a disclaimer? Did Visegrad produce it? If so why? It's not like them working together is a secret 👉
2/ On 6th of June and on 4th October 2024, Tommy Robinson posted on X this video specifically about Qatar. It has a degree of production value. It repeats generic tropes we've seen with pro-Israel and US right-wing narratives about Qatar.
3/ In the video Robinson is filming it on the South Bank of the Thames, across from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. (I've run down here a fair bit). Notice his blue outfit and black t-shirt.
🚨🧵1/ Graph showing people on X sharing the 'Haitians' or 'Immigrants' are eating pets xenophobic and/or racist disinfo. @elonmusk gets the most engagement by far on the topic, but @jdvance @stillgray @Surabees @tedcruz @charliekirk11 @endwokeness & @bennyjohnson get a lot
2/ Here's a list of the accounts who got the most impressions. I counted a minimum of 399,984, 065 impressions - and I was only downloading tweets with a minimum engagement of 50 retweets - so the real figure is higher.
3/ Another horrible outcome of this is that we now have to endure disturbing and racist memes of Trump abducting kittens (presumably to eat). Even Musk shared one, along with several tweets on the topic - supercharging the disinfo
🧵1/ Thought I'd zoom in on the data from the Southport riots, especially given the recent arrest of a man in Pakistan - which has prompted some commentators & news outlets to use it as an opportunity to target people of colour once again. Let's look at what happened
2/ A man in Pakistan, Farhan Asif, who ran Channel3NowNews, was just arrested for spreading misinfo. Channel3NowNews used the made-up name "Ali Al Shakati," However, contrary to some right-wing i/allusions, Channel3NowNews was NOT the first to tweet this name, or be arrested
3/ The first known person to post the name "Ali Al Shakati" on X was actually Artemisfornow, aka Bernie Spofforth, a wealthy woman from Cheshire. She tweeted the name over an hour before Channel3NowNews. She was arrested over a week ago, and released on bail.