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4 Feb, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Well this is big.

UK telecoms regulator @Ofcom just revoked the licence of Chinese state broadcaster CGTN to broadcast in the UK, arguing the licence is held by an entity which doesn't have editorial control, in breach of UK rules.

ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/la…
Important to underline this is not about content.

Ofcom found that the company which held the CGTN licence, Star China Media, didn't have editorial control.

CGTN offered to transfer to a different entity, but it's ultimately controlled by the CCP, and therefore disqualified.
On the content side, though, CGTN *was* found guilty last year of breaking the rules on due impartiality with its coverage of the Hong Kong protests.

Turns out they didn't give the protesters a fair hearing.

ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
Revoking a broadcast licence is a rare thing.

The closest parallel I know was in 2012, when Press TV had its UK licence revoked.

There, too, the problem was the licence holder not having editorial control.

theguardian.com/media/2012/jan…
Also worth noting that CGTN is still lined up for possible sanctions because of its HK violations and a breach of fairness/privacy rules, and under investigation on three other counts of fairness and privacy.

Keep watching.

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More from @benimmo

Ben Nimmo Profile picture
5 Feb
Some personal news: today’s my last day at @Graphika_NYC.

My team did amazing investigative work and research into influence ops from Russia, Iran, China and many other places.

We’ve broken new ground, and I couldn’t be more proud of the team @camillefrancois and I built.
Next week, I’m starting at Facebook, where I’ll be helping to lead global threat intelligence strategy against influence operations.

I’m very excited to join one of the best IO teams in the world to study, catch and get ahead of the known players and emerging threats.
As a community - platforms, researchers and journalists - we’ve all come a long way since the dawn of this field of research.
Read 11 tweets
Ben Nimmo Profile picture
4 Feb
JUST OUT: Update on pro-China op Spamouflage Dragon.

Still spammy, but prolific and persistent, and getting some traction for the first time.

Over 1,400 videos in the last year.

Including geopolitical rivalry with the US.

@Graphika_NYC report: graphika.com/reports/spamou…
Spamou works on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook.

Mainly videos in Mandarin, Cantonese, or Mandarin + English.

Low quality, high volume, on:

Guo Wengui (from 2018)
Hong Kong protests (2019)
Chinese achievements (Feb 2020)
US crises (early 2020)
US-China rivalry (mid-2020)
We don’t have attribution on this op yet.

It’s persistent, well enough resourced to produce over 1,400 videos in a year, and closely tracks Chinese state messaging.

But who exactly is running it remains a question.
Read 30 tweets
Ben Nimmo Profile picture
29 Jan
And this, just out from @MsHannahMurphy and @SVR13: questions about the hundreds of thousands of followers that the same Huawei Western Europe execs have.

ft.com/content/0411bc…
I'll leave it to others to analyse the 800k+ accounts involved in these followings, but one anecdotal sidelight on the fake network of accounts that attacked Belgium: some of its other amplification came from glambots from a network that also boosted Huawei Europe.
Glambots = automated accounts that use profile pictures taken from glamour shoots and similar sources.
Read 7 tweets
Ben Nimmo Profile picture
29 Jan
Great report by @satariano on a fake network that @Graphika_NYC (and others) found in December.

Twitter accounts with GAN faces, boosting Huawei, boosted by Huawei execs, and attacking Belgium's 5G policies.

Not enough evidence to prove who ran them.

nytimes.com/2021/01/29/tec…
We found this network when it was boosted by Spamouflage, a pro-China operation.

Independently, @mvanhulten of @TI_EU and @ArbiterOfTweets of @Knack found it with different methods.

It's not a friendly environment for fake campaigns, folks.

graphika.com/reports/fake-c…
This was the first account we found.

"Alexandre, PhD", apparently a CEO.

But no surname, no indication of what he's a CEO of, and a GAN-generated profile pic.
Read 23 tweets
Ben Nimmo Profile picture
23 Jan
One sidelight on the Russian protests today: #Navalny is probably the single most consistent target of Russian disinfo and influence operations.

He's been a target for at least 8 years, by ops including the Internet Research Agency, Secondary Infektion, and the Kremlin.
Way back in September 2013, @Soshnikoff investigated the then newly founded Internet Research Agency, and reported that it had been trolling Navalny when he ran for Mayor of Moscow.

mr-7.ru/articles/90769/
January 2014: op Secondary Infektion set up its most prolific persona, with a pic of Navalny’s face painted blue. It started out by attacking the Russian opposition.

The username, bloger_nasralny, is a toilet pun on his name.
Read 11 tweets
Ben Nimmo Profile picture
23 Jan
Question for the #OSINT community: can anyone else find TikTok videos about protests for Navalny that become unavailable if you watch via a Russian server?

I’ve got 8 so far on #свободунавальному and #23января2021.

Nearly 2 million likes between them.

#DigitalSherlocks Image
Background: the Russian telecoms authority, Roskomnadzor, said it’s got platforms to take down calls for minors to join the protests.

facebook.com/roskomnadzor.o…
If you check TikTok for key hashtags about Navalny and the protests, some of the most popular videos don’t show up when browsing through a Russian VPN.

Four of the nine most popular on #свободунавальному, for example. Image
Read 9 tweets

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