[Thread] 1) I've had a chance to look at the HJS report that are the basis for the May 2021 Times article and June 2021 article in the Telegraph. There's no doubt Iran is a bad actor with regards to digital disinformation, but this type of reporting is somewhat disingenuous 
2) My main concern is that both articles are based on the same report by the @HJS_Org . Although HJS_Org are known for their Islamophobic, neo-con agenda, that is not particularly new. What I find bizarre is that there are two mainstream newspapers commenting on the report as if
3) it were providing new and revelatory information, giving it a 'scoop' and sensationalist quality when in fact all the information about Iran's manipulation on Facebook and Twitter has been revealed by either FireEye, FB themselves or Graphika. No new networks have been
4) revealed in this report - although that's the sense one gets when one reads the newspaper articles. The fact the HJS report wasn't published till over a month after the Times article based on the report was published meant disinfo researchers couldn't verify the findings.
5) This compounded the illusion that there were new Iranian disinfo efforts related to the Scottish afoot. Repackaging old information as new in this manner simply serves to provoke alarmism, especially when that info cannot be scrutinized. The fact two papers squeezed two
6) separate stories on online disinformation a month apart from a report that was not particularly revelatory is a little bizarre. The report itself as @maasalan has noted reads like a piece of Islamophobic, anti-left scaremongering.
7) Iran as a severe human rights abuser deservers all the scrutiny it gets, but this just seems to add fuel the fire of warmongers and those trying to dismantle JCPOA #disinformation
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
