[Thread] 1/ There is currently a #disinformation campaign attacking the human rights organization @ALQST_ORG - most accusing it of 'attacking' Saudi and being a Muslim Brotherhood entity.The campaign would suggest it was state-backed, and involves dozens of fake accounts. Read on
2/ ALQST is a human rights org focused on Saudi. Some will remember that Alaa Al Siddiq was a member. Sadly Alaa died in a car crash recently in the UK. The context of the attack is ALQST discussing HR in Saudi and sharing a panel and with Amnesty International at #HRC48
3/ Curious about this network, approximately 50 Twitter accounts, almost all featuring profile pictures of attractive young women, are spreading a collection of tweets and infographics condemning ALQST. I collected some of them below to give you an idea. #disinformation >
4/ In addition to the fact the accounts all feature women, functioning as a 'honey trap', they are from across the Middle East, from Oman, Saudi and Algeria, to Libya, Morocco & Egypt. The idea here is to create the illusion of broad & widespread consensus of the message
5/ Despite the obvious pattern in gendering the message, many of the accounts use sockpuppet accounts. I.e. accounts that used to belong to someone else but have been hacked/purchased. Some examples
Salwa Ali was Jerome Kelly
Gehad Mohammed was Jose Giraud
Aya Abid was Kenneth
6/ Of course then there's my favourite, Asmaa Magdy, aka 'cool kid never lie'. It's true, cool kids don't like, nor do they do drugs!
7/ The accounts also use Twitter Web App, and all tweeted more or less at the same time. As the below graph shows, most in this case are 'isolated' (not all). That is to say, they tweeted on the topic without obvious co-ordination - despite them sharing the same infographics
8/ In other words, the intent is to create the illusion of spontaneity and no - ordination - e.g. authentic and organic. Ironically it does the opposite.
9/ What are they saying. Well they are accusing the organisation of supporting terrorism via the Muslim Brotherhood, a trope we usually see coming from UAE, Egypt, or Saudi. One of the infographics even features Citizen Lab's @billmarczak
10/ One of the infographics focuses on @joshcooperate and sort of refers to a Jewish British Qatari conspiracy. Not quite sure what they mean by that.
11/ In terms of their past behaviour, perhaps no prizes for guessing. Lots of anti Turkish and anti Qatar content, mostly accusing them of supporting terrorism, and destabilising Libya.
12/ An interesting aspect of these accounts is that they spend a lot of time interacting with other accounts (such as replying). These replies are often propaganda or generic comments, but they work to give the impression (& tells Twitter) that they are authentic #disinformation
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1/ Another key aspect of this campaign was the part targeting #Lebanon. The accounts below are all linked to the campaign. All of them attempt to interfere in Lebanese politics by riling up sectarian sentiment, diverting blame away from Israel and focusing on Iran and Hezbollah
2/ These groups, with names like "No to the Iranian Occupation", "Shia Against War", and "the war of 2006 is remembered and will not be repeated" position themselves as groups representing real people. They all use similar TTPs & identical branding strategies. All have been
3/ suspended from Facebook but not Twitter, and many have run ads. Shia Against War, for example, paid to advertise content from the Tahoror movement (see right). However Tahoror denied any involvement with the group.
1/ 📝Excited to announce the release of "The Qatar Plot," authored by myself & @SohanDsouza. This investigation (covered in @afp today) reveals a massive influence op targeting Qatar & Muslims, including in the US, UK and EU - ahead of European Elections sites.google.com/view/theqatarp…
2/ 🚨 Our findings uncover a vast network spreading xenophobic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration, and anti-Qatar disinformation. The operation spanned platforms like Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, and TikTok. To a lesser extent, the op also target Iran🌐 #Disinfo #Islamophobia
3/ 🇫🇷🇬🇧🇺🇸 Targeted countries include France, the UK, the USA, Germany, Spain, Sweden Saudi,and more. This network reached millions, manipulating ,public sentiment with at least 41 million reached on Facebook alone (and this is a conservative estimate). 📈 #QatarPlotReport
🧵1/ There is some confusion going on around the strike in Rafah. This is largely due to awful IDF instructions. In a video on 22nd May IDF spokesman @AvichayAdraee told people that Zones 2371, 2373, 2360 were safe. I have highlighted this below.
2/ The source of the confusion lies in the fact that the image of the highlighted map in @AvichayAdraee's video DOES NOT match the text. The image initially does not include zones 2371, 2373, 2360 yet the text explicitly states they are safe.
3/ However the location of the strike has been reported to be both 2371 and 2372. Existing geolocation by @m_osint and Al Jazeera suggests it was in 2372, not 2371. Zone 2372 was not explicitly mentioned by the IDF. However...
1) Telegraph subtly trying to align pro-Palestinian voices with Chinese and Russian disinformation. No actual evidence is provided here of Chinese and Russian interference, simply a note that some pro-Palestinian accounts have fake followers.
2) (It should be noted that you can't control who follows you). From my point of view there are a LOT of fake accounts on X promoting various points of view. However, there is more evidence for Israel using fake accounts on FB, Insta and X to smear UNRWA aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/19…
3) Interestingly, the network that was focusing on attacking UNRWA, is also focusing on blaming the Chinese/Russian/Iranian 'axis of evil'. While it's plausible China and Russia are trying to influence narratives, the narrative that China and Russia are the only ones operating
🧵1/ Israel are attempting to muddy the waters around the killing of an international UN worker in a clearly marked vehicle. They have released a video claiming that "terrorists" are roaming and shooting at a UNRWA compound. There's no evidence that indicates they are
2/ terrorists. The video shows armed men mingling with what are probably UN workers. There is no sense of coercion or animosity in those shots. Crucially, there is no caveat that these people might not be factions or Hamas police protecting aid convoys.
3/ The US has even asked Israel to stop targeting Hamas police officers trying to protect aid. Naturally the video provides no context, and remember the IDF are an organisation that recently murdered multiple aid workers in clearly marked vehicles.
🧵1/ I am somewhat dismayed (though sadly unsurprised) by this extremely disingenuous and callous reporting about Palestinian death figures. Claims that the UN have revised down its death toll are absolutely untrue but have been repeated by right wing outlets but also the CFR 🤔
2/ These media are focusing on these two infographics by the @ochaopt . The one on the left, published 6th May, the one on the right published 8th May. As you can see, total fatalities INCREASE, as opposed to decrease. What the propaganda is seaking to do is barely sophistry
3/All that's happening is the OCHA has added figures for the dead that have been identified. It quite clearly says that the breakdown DOES NOT include 10000 missing or buried under rubble.