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Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
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Mar 20 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
🧵1/ Latest biolabs and Ukraine disinfo weather report

Sample size: 20717 interactions
Unique accounts: 17934
Date range - 18-19th March

Cluster 1: Spreading biolabs conspiracies
Cluster 2: Debunking/criticising biolab conspiracies

#UkraineRussiaWar
#disinformation
2/ Biggest influencers. A lot of Chinese or Russian state-backed or actual state accounts. Coming in hot > @RussianEmbassy UK, @zlj517 - Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, @Rt_com, @RussiaUN - Russian mission to the UN
3/ @TulsiGabbard and @TuckerCarlson tweets from a few days ago still getting a lot of love. This 'long tail' of their popularity indicates they are quite important nodes in this story.

I won't bother doing the debunkers today. It's Sunday afterall

#ukraine
#disinformation
4/ Now that the smoke is cleared it's telling to see a lot of the key proponents of the disinformation are Russian or Chinese officials, or respective state-backed media. Right wing/libertarian American public figures still a boon for this story! Peace

#UkraineRussiaWar

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Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 21
My interview on #disinformation with @isocockerell , where I talk mental illness, biolabs, #Ukraine and my upcoming book on digital authoritarianism in the Middle East codastory.com/authoritarian-… @CodaStory
'I think when people think of authoritarianism, it’s very state centric — they think of governments using tech. But the authoritarian use of tech is actually multiple actors, both existing in authoritarian regimes and outside them.' #disinformation
How would you describe the traction that the propaganda offensive against Ukraine has gained? #UkraineRussiaWar #disinformation Image
Read 5 tweets
Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 17
Great and thorough piece by @tomjs 'Twitter let Russia churn out anti-Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation for weeks during war' inews.co.uk/news/world/twi… #ukraine #disinformation
'Despite the platform’s own policies, only 6 per cent of Kremlin-linked embassy accounts were flagged as ‘state-affiliated’, i investigation shows'
'Rather than a rare oversight by Twitter... i found the accounts of Russian embassies across the world are regularly used to spread disinfo related to the invasion of #Ukraine and that the efficacy of this is boosted by inconsistent implementation of #disinformation policies.'
Read 4 tweets
Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 17
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 Image
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 ImageImage
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 ImageImageImage
Read 7 tweets
Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 16
1/Just a quick weather update on biolab mis/dis/information and or propaganda. Who is discussing Ukraine and biolabs, and what are they saying? Who are the most retweeted and most influential in the past 48 hours. #ukraine #disinformation
2/ See clusters 1, 2 & 3. Cluster 1 is mostly people criticising the biolabs conspiracy, or the absurdity of it. Cluster 2 are generally those that can be considered active in the spread of propaganda or misinformation. Cluster 3 is a French NWO type spreading Russian propaganda
3/ Zooming in on Cluster 1 for example, @atrupar is calling out @TuckerCarlson for misrepresenting biolab info. @oneunderscore__ wrote a piece on the conspiracy and its 'dumb' origins. @JoeTrippi is sharing Ben's and @kevincollier's critique of the conspiracy

#Ukraine
Read 14 tweets
Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 15
🧵1/ I found 8 accounts posting an identical tweet accusing Ukraine of using a 'crisis actor' during the bombing of Mariupol. (A model acting as if she was pregnant to evoke sympathy after bombing of a maternity hospital) #disinformation #mariupol ImageImageImageImage
2/ They're all posted from strange looking accounts, - sock puppety type accounts. That is, accounts that belonged to someone else but were taken over for other purposes.

See more of the accounts below pasting the identical tweet >

#disinformation
#UkraineUnderAttack ImageImageImageImage
3/ Kind of curious about this one > @JohnOlzard. The photo is of a real person called John Olzard. He's a realtor in Brisbane, and seems to tweet incessantly about crypto now. However, he is now really anti #Ukraine, and pro QAnon conspiracy theories. Is it really his account? ImageImageImageImage
Read 11 tweets
Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Mar 14
🧵1/ Ok so I decided to drill down more on a core component of the #biolabs fake news.

What's fascinating about this is the clear overlap between pro-Russian propaganda and genuine Chinese officials amplifying it. Read on

#Ukraine
#disinformation
2/ So first up. A core component of the biolabs story was a key piece of disinfo.

Remember, for a good conspiracy, it helps to have scandal and perceived nefarious behaviour. It's especially good if you can make it look like your adversary is hiding something!

How though?
3/ Well it was fairly simple. It was reported by 'investigative journalist' @dgaytandzhieva around 26th Feb that the US Embassy in Kyiv had deleted documents about its biolaboratories in Ukraine.

Deletion = what are you hiding??

Read 15 tweets

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