Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jan 14, 2023 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce a Chinese ultra-nationalistic tabloid & "China's Fox News", The Global Times (GT). It's a daily newspaper published by CCP's People's Daily. The newspaper has fabricated stories, spread conspiracy theories and published disinformation.

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The Chinese version was established in 1993 and it is one of the most read newspapers in China. Its popularity rose after the paper reported on Western incidents such as the accidental bombing of Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, 9/11 and the Iraq War.

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After the launch of a propaganda mill Russia Today in 2005, the Chinese government wanted to extend their overseas media reach, too. For this purpose, they launched an English version of the site in 2009, the US edition in 2013 and the South African version in 2014.

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GT launched their "social media monitoring" program with "comprehensive response plans" in 2019. GT's ex-Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin adopted the combative & confrontational "wolf warrior" strategy that loudly denounces criticism towards the CCP & then focuses on counter-attack. 4/12
The term comes from the movie "Wolf Warrior 2" (really!) and can also be referred as the "No you" tactic. With this tactic, China has taken more active role in international debate, often aligning them against the "decadent West". The same tactic is applied by the Russians.

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GT is best-known for its hawkish and insulting editorials and Hu Xijin has said that it shares the sentiments of CCP's politicians - meaning that it says the things that the politicians and diplomats themselves can't. Hu Xijin was fired from his position in 2021.

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The paper has published several articles containing disinformation. In Jan, 2021 they urged Australia not to use the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19, while pushing their own Sinopharm vaccine. They've also spread the fake news that COVID-19 was created by Moderna.

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In 2021, ProPublica and the NYT reported that GT was coordinating a state-wide campaign to deny the Uyghur human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Since then, GT has published several articles blaming the US of disinformation campaigning against China.

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In Jun, 2022, GT tweeted a claim that thousands of angry protesters were marching against NATO's aid for Ukraine in Brussels. The rally had no connection to NATO, but was aimed at inflation and high prices.

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GT is what in disinformation research is called an "information laundering machine". People tend to believe stories when they come from "prestigious" news sources. Propaganda producers have realized this and they've established online propaganda mills that produce biased...
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... news that are then spread on social media platforms via troll farms and state actors such as diplomats and embassies to give them more credibility. These "newspapers" have little to no investigative journalism and they are heavily affected by an agenda,...

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..., often copying rhetoric from fake news blogs and other propaganda mills. They also often publish aggressive editorials and op-eds, steering away the responsibility from state actors such as the CCP.

Troll farms:

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

1/23 Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

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Read 23 tweets

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