I wondered where the rumors claiming the Reuters piece is "Russian disinformation" began since various people were tweeting about that in my mentions yesterday.

So I searched "Reuters Tass" 😐
One major problem with the Reuters piece is that it relies on information from anonymous law enforcement sources - something Glenn Greenwald usually hates and has publicly denounced for years.

Tass is not the source of the Reuters article.
It's also got a sensational headline which is why it's right-wing catnip.

As a side note, an article that's published outside of the right-wing media ecosystem is more influential because it appears more credible.
So here's the article some of these folks are tweeting regarding Tass joining Reuters Connect.

June 2020: "TASS joins a growing roster of 17 news agencies whose content is already available to clients on Reuters Connect" reuters.com/article/rpb-ta…
Reuters and Tass are news agencies (aka newswires or wire services). That's different than a news outlet.

The customers of a news outlet are its readers/viewers. The customers of a news agency are news outlets. They pay a subscription to distribute/republish news from the wires.
FAQ for Reuters Connect: reutersagency.com/en/about/faqs/

It's a paid subscription service. This is what Tass joined in June 2020. It includes 17 other news agencies from around the world.
An example from my local paper of an article from a news agency. If a journalist from my local paper had written this, their name would be in the byline. But journalists from @AP wrote it so it has their names + "Associated Press" - my paper got this from the AP wire service.
Blaming Russia lets those anonymous US law enforcement sources off the hook. And because several social media influencers have turned it into a Russia thing, they've obfuscated the real problems with the Reuters article...
Since it was published by a news agency, it can be widely distributed in many news outlets. That combined with official-sounding sources and the virality of the article in right-wing media means it's setting an agenda that will be difficult to reverse.
This is a decent article about how news agencies work from the perspective of the PR industry.
agilitypr.com/newswires-101/
Here's my never-ending #LEOdisinfo thread if you're not sure why we should be skeptical of law enforcement sources (especially anonymous ones)
And please stop blaming Russia for everything.

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More from @3r1nG

14 Sep
There are currently 32 files uploaded to the private Facebook group Unmask Pennsylvania Students (60K+ members) various kinds of mask exemption forms, school board contact lists, a list of "vaccine attorneys" and a list of "Sheriff Duties" (from Sheriff Mack at CSPOA) ImageImage
All sorts of handy resources for parents "taking a stand" against mask mandates in PA schools. Over 10,000 posts since the group was created on August 31.

Isn't it great how Facebook brings people with common causes together like this? ImageImageImageImage
People are using these forms and reporting back if they work. I downloaded all the files today in case they get lost somewhere in the Facebook data abyss. ImageImage
Read 9 tweets
2 Sep
Imagine you fought in an unwinnable war that killed thousands of fellow soldiers. Imagine everyone knew it was unwinnable, but lied about it for 20 years. And imagine once that unwinnable war finally ended, the media barely mentioned the “Lessons Learned” theguardian.com/world/2019/dec…
“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan – we didn’t know what we were doing.”

“If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction … 2,400 lives lost.”

- Douglas Lute (lieutenant general)

theguardian.com/world/2019/dec…
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“Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice-cream cone.”

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theguardian.com/world/2019/dec…
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445,000 people talking about “medical freedom” on Facebook tonight. It’s popular! 😐
Doing an experiment for science. Here are results from 4 Facebook friends in USA.

“Medical tyranny” is also popular, so that’s great. And Medical Medium appears to be wildly popular although I’ve heard of him before tonight.
The result from a friend in Southeast Asia seems to be the least politicized so far, although Medical Medium is once again recommended and my SEA friend never heard of him either.
Read 4 tweets
20 Aug
Brand new "Intel" account opened 07/18/21. First tweet was 5 days ago & at least 2 of 59 tweets are misleading/fake news.

1. 2019 TX football stadium reuters.com/article/factch…

2. CNN reporter Clarissa Ward said she always wore a headscarf in Kabul streets
I didn't try to trace anything else it tweeted and am too tired. 😴
PS: I'm pretty sure we all knew that the video of supposed Taliban dancing to Drake's “In my Feelings” and the "violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power" photoshopped CNN chyron are... not real.
Read 5 tweets
17 Aug
He stole that photo from an Afghanistan news account and made up a false narrative about what's happening in the photo.
Former Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia 🤦🏻‍♀️
jfc
Read 5 tweets
16 Aug
The current pinned tweet of the "Civilian Casualty Prevention and Complaints Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" contains WhatsApp numbers to contact various provincial directors. US social media platforms are being used as a Taliban communications network.
Account was created on July 8, 2021 and has tweeted 40 tweets, 32 in the past 48 hours. The link in the bio appears to be down right now but it was archived in the Wayback Machine multiple times, most recently on August 8, 2021: web.archive.org/web/2021080823…
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