The tag #Remove1991WorshipAct is trending in India today. In fact, it was sitting at #3 in the country a few hours ago.
There's a campaign pushing a specific narrative behind it in a very coordinated way.
Let's take a look at how it works👇 /1
The campaign is first circulated around in a WhatsApp message like this.
It has a directive, time, and a Google Drive link. If you're new to Indian social media campaigns - this is common practice to amplify specific issues, especially during elections. 2/
In the Google Drive is a few documents with lists of suggested tweet texts in English & Hindi.
What's interesting is that there's also a 'click to tweet' option, which fills out a tweet by clicking on the link. So it's not really copy and paste anymore, but click and click. 3/
Here's an example of how those 'click to tweet' links work.
Note - this was performed for research purposes only. I do not endorse the suggested content. 4/
The Google Drive also contains a number of suggested images to be used in the campaign. I'd say if you're seeing these in the #Remove1991WorshipAct tweets today, they're going to be part of this effort. 5/
These campaigns are pretty repetitious, for example this is the result of a search for the text:
"Considering it marks a positive step towards Hindus long-standing efforts to reclaim their religious places of worship which were converted into mosques by Islamic invaders" 6/
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The situation in the Darfur city El Fasher (الفاشر) is extremely concerning. It's the last city not under control by the dangerous Rapid Support Forces and has been a safe haven for those fleeing attacks by the RSF.
It is now a city under siege and in a grave situation. /1
According to @MSF, a paediatric hospital in El Fasher was damaged due to the ongoing fighting. MSF ground staff reported a Sudanese Armed Forces air strike exploded nearby causing the damage. Two children died in the ICU. /2
An update on Sudan's El Fasher from @MSF on May 15 indicated that since fighting began on May 10, 454 casualties had arrived at South Hospital in El Fasher. It was reported that 56 died, but that the wounded and death toll would be higher. /3 msf.org/sudan-nowhere-…
Google Earth has updated its satellite imagery of many parts of Sudan. Looking over West Darfur city of El Geneina, I am shocked at the level of destruction. In some parts, whole areas have been destroyed and cleared. Location: 13.4469, 22.4151 (dates: April 2023 & March 2024)
The burn damage around El Geneina's specialised hospital is incredible.
It's not just the widespread burning of structures that we see in El Geneina, as a result of the ongoing violence in Sudan, but there are also clear indications of structures that have been removed, like these warehouses, located at 13.43324, 22.41364
This video, reportedly showing an Israeli woman kidnapped, beaten and taken into Gaza, was filmed from Al Shuja-iyyah St in Gaza at about 10am this morning.
Verification of the location can be confirmed through the location of the minaret in the background, white dome in the near ground, and then the angle of the orange roof in comparison to the street.
Location: 31.503462, 34.466569.
Shadows seen in the footage, indicate that the sun had to have been at a position to cast those shadows in line, or just off, the same angle as the street at 10am, or just before 10am.
Lots of smoke rising over the skyline of Khartoum today as clashes continue between RSF and SAF forces in different areas of the city.
People in Sudan have shared these flyers in a plea for help over what's happening with a water purification plant that services a lot of Khartoum with clean water.
It has been badly damaged and safe access needs to be granted to allow for repairs to be made to the plant.
The water treatment plant in Bahri appears to have been damaged in the initial wave of bombings in Khartoum. In satellite imagery on Google Earth from April 15 we can see a fire in the area, imagery from @planet on April 19 published by @hrw at least one building damaged.
The findings are based on data collected from Twitter and Telegram, looking at more than 1585 accounts and 480 channels and running follow up searches on numerous platforms.
Data was collected using keywords: Khokhols, Hohols and iterations used as anti-Ukrainian national slurs
The terms were selected given their prominence in Google Search trends. For example, the screenshot below shows the increase in the search of the term Khokhol which surged significantly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last week I spoke at @journalismfest on how open-source intelligence is used to combat propaganda and uncover new information during Russia's war on Ukraine. Thank you for having me.
I promised to share a list of links to tools and sources. Here it is (I hope it helps) 👇
I often share digital investigation skills, cases and sources at events to help remotely answer core questions such as:
WHERE & WHEN did it happen?
WHAT happened?
WHO is responsible?
And HOW can it be visualised?
So let's start with the case studies.
1: EyesonRussia.org - our community effort to document, verify and map Russia's invasion of Ukraine and share this info with the world.