Thread by @marcowenjones

1/ Next up on the #disinformation forecast. There are rumours that 'Wali', the Canadian sniper with the record for the world's longest kill, and who went to #Ukraine to fight, has been killed. No credible news stories are sharing this, but there is a lot of activity, incl bots

2/ it is being suggested that the story originated in Chinese media. Others have said they heard it on Russian telegram. The origins are not clear but those boosting it on Twitter are either not known or who have little credibility.

#disinformation

3/ The biggest propagators on Twitter are former Australian University lecturer @timand2037 Nigerian 'sapiophilist' @L_man__ filmmaker @jcokechukwu and @anon_candanga and @SilingWu + @SilingWu2. Thousands of RTs between them

4/ Some of the Chinese accounts sharing the story appear extremely hypernationalist, even mentioning that Taiwan will never be independent in their profile. One of the accounts sharing it was also one of the highly active Indian accounts on the 'i stand with putin' hashtag

5/ Around 60 bots are also promoting links to several poorly written stories on sketchy news sites that don't fully debunk the story. These type bots are not uncommon, designed to boost links for bad websites

#ukraine

6/ the bots share articles from sites like topify or page zilli, none of which look remotely legitimate. They tweet at exactly the same time. They don't have a great deal of followers, and occasionally have generic bios. My fave is Eric/Kim the Pearl Jam fan

7/ I would say the whole story is a rumour or an attempt at psyops designed to deter foreign fighters from coming to Ukraine, and boost Russian morale. I'll leave you with the influencer highlights diagram #ukraine #disinfo