Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Jan 12, 2022 14 tweets 8 min read Read on X
🧵[Thread] 1/ I have detected a Somalia-focused sockpuppet network spreading pro-UAE, anti-Qatar and anti-Turkish propaganda on Twitter and Reddit. However, their main efforts are criticizing Somalia President Farmajo, and supporting Prime Minister Roble 👉 #disinformation
2/ The network consists of around 30-40 sockpuppet accounts. Like other networks I have documented recently, many of the images feature attractive young millenial/gen z types with fairly professional headshots. They all use Twitter Web App, and tweet in Somali, English or Arabic
3/ Below is a typical sample of a lot of the content from the network. Anti-Farmajo, pro-Roble, pro-UAE, anti-Turkey, and anti-Qatar. The accounts all post banal or trivial influencer-type content between their political posts, for that instagrammable spice 🌶️ #disinformation
4/ I analysed around 3500 tweets from these accounts dating back to around April 2020. The most common word used by the accounts is 'Farmajo', indicating he is the main source of their focus. The accounts were particularly active around the Somali Elections began in late 2021
5/ The network has been active since around early 2020. The below graph shows how they initially focused on criticizing Qatar (pink) and Turkey's (purple) role in Somalia, but has shifted more to talking and criticizing Farmajo (orange). #disinformation
6/ An interesting aspect of this network is that it also active on the r/Somali and r/politics @Reddit . Below are identical images on Twitter and Reddit, but different names. As expected, they post similar content (anti-Farmajo articles/posts ) #disinformation #sockpuppets
7/ There are at least two more of the Somalian disinformation spreaders on Reddit, as you can see below. Some of them also have Facebook profiles (won't post screenshots) #disinformation
8/ Interestingly, after receiving a tip about this network (thanks for that), I looked into it about 3 days ago. Since that time, Twitter has suspended around 16 of the accounts. Actually, Twitter also suspended some of the network back in late 2021, during the elections
9/ However half of the network are still active. Interestingly, 20 of the accounts were easy to find because they blocked me (I had never interacted with them). I also suspected others that hadn't blocked me, many of these were later suspended -thus confirming my suspicions
10/ What's the goal of the network? Well based on a report by @CrisisGroup on 'Somalia and the Gulf Crisis', there was pressure on the Somali government to choose sides, Qatar/Turkey or UAE and co. The network here is clearly aligned with trying to crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-af…
11/ undermine Farmajo and attack the Qatar/Turkey relationship with Somalia. The general discourse is that Farmajo is corrupt, incompetent, disruptive, dishonest while Turkey supports terrorism or wishes to control Somalia. #disinformation #Somalia
11/ To sum up then. Twitter have suspended part of a Somali-focused networked that appears to be attacking Farmajo, Turkey, Qatar, while reflecting UAE foreign policy. The network resembles a similar network I identified a few days ago, but focused on the Muslim Brotherhood.
12/ Given the similar aesthetics, the fact many of them had pre-blocked me, I would say this is part of the same operation, which clearly has different 'files', some focusing in Arabic on muslim brotherhood, others focusing on Horn of Africa and the Somali language.
13/ Anyway, that's all for now, happy Wednesday all!

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More from @marcowenjones

Oct 6
🧵🚨1/ This verified X account posing as an American doctor has been spreading pro-Israel propaganda, justifying the killing of journalists, and posting predominantly anti–Sudanese Armed Forces content. The account is fake.>
#disinformation #gazagenocide #Sudan Image
2/ The first clear red flags are the tweets versus creation date ratio.

The account was created in 2009, but has only tweeted 1090 times, and the first of those was on April 2025. This means the account has been appropriated/hacked/bought and its old tweets scrubbed. Image
3/ I located the unique user id of the account. I ran this user id via the botometer archive of bots and it tells me that in February 2023 the account was called 'sitaramks', not 'nate_jone' Image
Read 15 tweets
Oct 6
1/ Propaganda botnet alert! About 50 accounts, tweeting in English & Arabic, have pushed out thousands of posts about #Sudan’s war over the past few months. Almost all certainly using genAI, all pushing a pro-UAE, anti-SAF & anti Muslim (Brotherhood) narrative. #disinformation Image
2/ They all follow the same script:

> Blame Burhan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Muslim Brotherhood for Sudan’s suffering.
> Praise the UAE for “stability” and “humanitarian aid.”
> Wrap it all in moral language about peace, tolerance, and unity. Image
3/ Much of the phrasing is synthetic: with odd, weird idioms, and em dashes. Classic traces of Chat GPT or another LLM agent. The slogans repeat across accounts:

e.g. “Brotherhood’s Butler”, “Brotherhood in Uniform”, “Ministry of Brotherhood Enforcement”, "Sudan bleeds" Image
Read 14 tweets
May 22
🤖 1/ Ok this is pretty wild. I saw some sus pro-Israel astroturfing activity on a BBCNews Facebook post about aid arriving in Gaza. Lots of Hasbara comments like "Hamas will take the aid". The following 2 identical posts were side by side so I looked into it. #disinformation Image
2/ Specifically I looked at Dean O' Connor. Firstly up, there were two almost identical Dean O'connor pages, both created on consecutive days last week (15 + 16 May). The one that posted is the one on the right. Image
Image
Image
3/ When I reverse image searched the picture I was inundated with dozens of pages from forums about romance scams asking about people using this same picture. A lot of people scammed out of thousands. Someone even asked on Quora about O'Connor! Image
Read 7 tweets
May 15
Macron Cocaine Thread/ - The first 10 hours of the @EmmanuelMacron @Keir_Starmer @ZelenskyyUa Cocaine disinformation.

Seemed to be promoted initially by a few dubious accounts like @Veritiste @SitgesFranck @99percentyouth @SilentlySirs @goddeketal

#disinformation Image
2/ Before being boosted by the right-wing ecosystem and conspiracy accounts e.g. @DineshDSouza @RealAlexJones @CollinRugg. No serious journalists reported this story (because it's absurd). Nonetheless, those tweeting in the first 10 hours generated over 103 million views on X! Image
3/ The boosting of the info by Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev was via Alex Jones, who as the above timeline shows - wasn't the first to put it out on X - but the most widely viewed. Image
Read 4 tweets
Apr 29
🚨1/ Fake News Alert: A number of accounts are spreading false information that a church in #Wales was burned down by two Pakistan migrants/muslims. There are other narratives, but this is the dominant one. It is false but has obtained millions of views. some data> #disinfo Image
2/ It is true that a church did burn down. It was set alight by two local teenagers. The South Wales police have tweeted that other rumours circulating are false - they are of course talking about the false info about the ethnicity of the attackers (right). Image
Image
3/ The most shared claim comes from 'RadioEuropes'. This is a 'Dysinfluencer' account - an account that repeatedly spreads false and malicious information - in this case xenophobic and anti-Muslim content. You can see its false tweet garnered over 3.6 million views Image
Read 12 tweets
Jan 8
1/ THREAD: On populist gaslighting and the war on truth-tellers 🧵 Image
2/ Something concerning is happening in our information ecosystem: populists aren't just spreading misinfo, they're systematically trying to undermine the very concept of verifiable truth
3/ When fact-checkers or experts present evidence contradicting false claims, they get labeled as "elitist manipulators" or 'censors' - effectively inverting reality
Read 8 tweets

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