This is a great report by @Graphika_NYC "Actors linked to previous Russian information operations continue to target American far-right communities with inflammatory and politically-divisive messaging, leveraging alternative online platforms" graphika.com/reports/posing…
what they found was a sustained effort to target far-right communities on alternative online platforms. The campaign was mostly on patriots[.]win where it utilizes a set of 20 inauthentic accounts as messaging vectors and amplifiers.
accounts on Gab and Parler were also used and were part of the earlier NAEBC operation. On multiple occasions, they posted the same unique content, usually closely after but sometimes before it appeared on patriots[.]win
"The campaign made a concerted effort to disseminate a series of political cartoons which Graphika was not able to identify elsewhere online. This suggests they could be original content created or commissioned directly by the actors."
Of important note "Despite media concerns about covert Russian efforts to instigate and exacerbate riots at the U.S. Capitol, the identified accounts only mentioned the events of Jan. 6 once in a post that received almost no traction online. "
"Additionally, the patriots[.]win operation made no explicit references to QAnon beyond general allegations of child sexual abuse targeted at Biden and support for Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene."
What is highlighted in the report in interesting as the actors appear to have chosen to commission specific content, rather than using existing content in the ecosystem. This could indicate an attempt at experimenting with trying to inject specific messaging OR...
it could be an indication that the threat actors are not familiar enough the the content in the ecosystem to leverage something that was already existing. It could also be a marker of experimentation.
My intelligent guess however, is that when a threat actor attempts to inject new content in a saturated and hyperactive market it is very much like watering your lawn during a hurricane
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This is a good read that brings up key policy points. As the piece states "Some argue, however, that the labeling of these organisations would not have the desired impact in terms of stopping attacks, because of the decentralised and individualistic nature of far-right groups."
Each country also has different strategies when it comes to labeling countries and some are legalistic, whole others are political. Also labeling a group might give it more credibility than it really has.
It was a multi agency operation over the past week which led to the arrest of the target and foil his plan to perpetuate a mass shooting. cnn.com/2021/05/30/us/…
KCSO investigators had made contact and conversed with the target to confirmed his affiliation and networks within ideologically motivated violent extremist communities
Four days ago on May 27 KCSO had intercepted a message indicating that the target was preparing to proceed with a mass shooting and made specific threat that included WalMart as a target location.
If I just heard this correctly, someone asked Flynn why what happened in Myanmar hasn't happened here (in the US) and Flynn said it should.... Now that is Flynn a former national security advisor saying a military coup should take place in the US.
So just relistened to the bit from the QAnon Conference stream and Flynn just said a military coup should happen in the US... Now this is something that is part of QAnon (the military liberating the nation from the Deep State Cabal). But Flynn is not an anonymous chan poster.
It's important to not that QAnon have generally been for what is happening I Myanmar. Military coups for adherents are a legitimate way to destroy democratic institutions. But the fact that individuals like Flynn is advocating for this vs ragtag QAnon influencers hits differently
A nontrivial 15% of Americans agree with the QAnon allegation “the government, media, & financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation,” while 82% Americans disagree prri.org/research/qanon…
Similarly, one in five Americans (20%) agree with the statement “There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders,” while a majority (77%) disagree.
Fifteen percent of Americans agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” while the vast majority (85%) disagree.
I'm just wondering if this is the quality content I need to produce to get a blue check on YouTube asking for @dappergander who wants to expand his counter QAnon platform
I mean their verified YouTube leads to their website which leads to their telegram channel. Since everyone was deplatformed you need to start backwards to know what type of actors use your platform to monitor their propaganda.
The entire point of Watkins new project is a rebrand of QAnon, there are to many powerful voices that are taking over the QAnon space that are not OG influencers or Watkins. Watkins also knows there are only so many recounts he can "monitor" before people loose interest.
People like Powell, Wood, Flynn and GhostEzra have taken a more influencer role in QAnon spaces that some of the OH influencers and this pisses them off and they cannot compete with the size of their audiences.
This will probably a project that Sather and IET jump on with Watkins so that they can controll the narrative an audience. It's about power, and this specific narrative will appeal to a specific subgroup of QAnon and the conspiracy theory space.