🧵1/ Yesterday I highlighted a large Chinese-language anti-US propaganda and #disinformation network on Twitter. A few of the accounts were also sharing links to Facebook videos. These links also led to fake #Facebook profiles sharing content in both English and Chinese
2/ For example, @HattonDrake , shared several links to a Facebook page 'blog' by 怜神, who has around 2.3k followers. The profile picture, like many of the accounts here, features an attractive young woman
3/ The videos shared by 怜神 are critical of the US sanctions on Russia, and its position towards Taiwan. Some of the videos have hundreds of likes, although it is not clear how many of the accounts doing the liking are legitimate.
4/ It is clear that 怜神 is part of a larger network of similar 'blog' accounts that spread Chinese content, in both English and Chinese. See below. Two different accounts but both using identical banner profile pictures #fail.

There are more though.
5/ For example, meet Noelle, Jacquelin, Kimberlee, and Genny Vanderwoude. All excellent stock photographers, and attractive. Their last share is a Chinese language video about Covid19 in Hong Kong. They all comment in Chinese on videos, and share the same videos.
6/ Their followers vary, Noelle for example, has a lot of Arabic followers - not sure how many of them are legit. Quite a few of the commenters also have Turkish sounding names.
7/ Like the twitter network, some of the accounts are more central nodes, with more followers, with other (low tier) accounts, boosting their content. One of these, whose name 'Kgfhgff' should be filed under *needs improvement*, was also sharing US #Ukraine biolab conspiracies
8/ It's not clear how many accounts are involved in total, but I came across a few dozen that were active in commenting. In addition to fake follower accounts it is likely much more.
9/ So TLDR: there is a network of fake facebook pages and accounts sharing English (translated from Chinese) and Chinese-language media content, much of which reads as propaganda, some of which is #disinformation about #Ukraine , Taiwan and Hong Kong.
For those who missed it > here is yesterday's thread on a large Chinese-language disinfo network

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More from @marcowenjones

Apr 10
🧵1/ I analysed 250000 tweets involving 92000 accounts tweeting the trending keyword 'Tochka-U'. I wanted to explore a key aspect of the contested narrative around the Kramatorsk station attack- & see the successful diffusion of the Russian narrative #UkraineRussiaWar #Ukraine Image
2/ Firstly context. Tochka-U is the name of the ballistic missile that landed on Kramatorsk station, killing 52 Ukrainians. They are used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces. Both sides accused each other of firing the missile. However, Russian propaganda & disinfo is fairly
3/ clear as it follows a couple of testable narratives. Firstly, official channels have stated that Russia no longer uses Toshka-U missiles. Another popular narrative is that the missile picture at Kramatorsk had a Ukrainian-only serial number & thus must have come from Ukraine. Image
Read 17 tweets
Apr 8
1/ Big #China thread drop! I've identified a network of 2-7000 (& probably more) fake accounts spreading pro-China propaganda in Chinese & English. Many of them are presenting the general argument that the US caused the #Ukraine conflict for its own benefit.

#disinformation
2/ First, the content. The network has recently focused on attacking US foreign policy, with particular regard to its role in #Ukraine and Taiwan. Additionally, it attacks Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessman accused of corruption, & talks about Hong Kong’s covid19 response
3/ The modus operandi? Accounts with stolen photos tweet unique propaganda content. These tweets are then boosted (retweeted and liked) by another network of sub accounts. Take Hatton Drake below, his photo is a stock image of a 'male child'. He seems mad about Hong Kong
Read 17 tweets
Apr 7
If this World Cup has taught me anything, it's that there are some that seem to think World Cups should only be held in former imperial states, nations that have infrastructure that has benefited from hundreds of years of colonial plunder, labour exploitation/child labour, that
are net arms exporters, that have imprisoned and sterilised people for their sexual preferences. Countries that have killed millions in wars, contributed the most to carbon emissions. Countries that somehow forget the tragedies on which they were built but feel morally
justified now to determine who deserves to host a tournament of a overrated sport that has become the new opiate of the masses . All this as yet another brutal war unfolds in Europe.The rules for this lecturing aren;t clear, is it about worker rights? Well that's hard to swallow,
Read 8 tweets
Apr 7
🧵📢1/ I have been tracking a particular sockpuppet network for several weeks now. It focuses mostly on the Middle East, tweets in English, is pro-Israel and seems mostly hostile to Qatar, Turkey and Iran.

Read on!

#disinformation #WorldCup2022
2/ Initially there were around 40 accounts, but after Twitter suspended some, the number now is around 17. Before the deletions, a surprising amount were located in 'Scotland'. The remainder are an eclectic bunch, spread from Iraq and Yemen to Israel and Louisana.
3/ Some accounts are far more plausible than others, with somewhat unlikely bios and profile pictures. My favorite is probably Jack McDonald, a 'spa attendant' from Iraq, who gets 'free entry to most of the places'. Hellooo Anna Delvey 2.0!
Read 10 tweets
Mar 24
🧵1/Below you can see a network graph of twitter accounts sharing varying levels of false information about Marianna Podgurskaya, the Ukrainian woman who was injured while pregnant during the Russian bombing of a maternity hospital. #UkraineRussiaWar #disinformation
2/ After the initial round of fake news around Marianna, a new video surfaced claiming she was taking Russian aid. There is no basis to believe this woman is Marianna. The tweets analyzed here mainly concern the tweets sharing that video, all of which intend to discredit her by
3/ inferring she was a crisis actor. There are 1600 tweets, replies and retweets here, involving 1300 unique accounts. Most are sharing one of three messages, each screenshotted below. They all accuse her of being involved in propaganda. Some falsely claims she was reportedly
Read 13 tweets
Mar 22
🧵1/I have done an analysis of those responding to #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe's interview, specifically focusing on those calling her an 'ungrateful cow' for not showing enough deference or gratitude to the UK government. The Brexit partisanship on the topic is startling. Read on!
2/ First up. Accusations that Nazanin was 'ungrateful' started surfacing following her press conference that went viral on Twitter yesterday. She was calm and assertive, as was her husband Richard. Watch the video here #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe
3/ I analysed around 14,000 tweets involving around 8600 unique accounts. I downloaded tweets that included the hashtag "send her back" and "ungrateful cow" and the keywords "Nazanin and ungrateful". (horrendous I know). The below network graph of tweets was generated
Read 17 tweets

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