🧵1) I downloaded all tweets since 6th February containing the word HAARP. It was way larger than I expected and I ended up without around 300k tweets across dozens of languages involving over 130k unique accounts! Read on for more #TurkeySyriaEarthquake#Disinformation
2) Firstly, why HAARP. Well, there's a conspiracy going around that HAARP - High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) (a former US program designed to investigate the ionosphere) is being used to weaponize weather, and even create earthquakes. Sound absurd right?
3) Nonetheless, tens of thousands have shared it on Twitter in dozens of languages, but mostly English, Turkish, Spanish, and French. Not everyone sharing it is agreeing with it, but the most shared tweets containing 'HAARP' support the conspiracy
4) The most retweeted accounts are not even well-known influencers. The English-speaking accounts include accounts that indicate they are right-wing US accounts, anti vaxxers, and at times anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
5/ Like one of the most shared tweets was from this guy - who combines anti-semitism with some sort of Satantic control of the music industry...His TL is quite something but he gets crazy engagement. Weird.
6) And if you thought HAARP was bad, some of the most shared accounts are also talking about 'project blue beam" - which apparently is a technology used to control the human race or something. Also, I like that these two have identical tweets.
7) In terms of the English-speaking accounts sharing the story, the eighth most common biographical term is 'MAGA' (Make America Great Again) - after freedom, life, patriot, god, anti, love, and Twitter. Again, pointing to a right-wing bent to this disinfo spreading
8) A lot of seems to be anti-NATO propaganda, a touch Russia adjacent... One of the tropes is that NATO used HAARP against Turkey to punish them for their position on Russia.
9) So far that's just some of the English activity. One of the most influential Turkish accounts is this guy, who seems to devote most of his time to tweeting conspiracy theories. But hey's he's got Twitter Blue so must be legit.
10) Curious though, the same account seems to have that same nexus of anti-freemasonry, anti-semitism, UNICEF abducting children (is this QAnon adjacent?). Anyway will go back to English now as maybe I'm missing context.
11) I'm fascinated by the disinfo grifters (disinfluencers) - This Stew Peters for example, is fully embracing HAARP creating that unusual (but natural) cloud in Turkey, and HAARP creating the earthquake too. FYI Peters was booted from Spotify for spreading Covid19 disinfo
12) An interesting thing about this HAARP conspiracy is that it started on the same day as the earthquake. There was no lag really. It's still going on now. Given the volume of tweets on it, it's likely to continue for some time and etch it's way into the disinfo lexicon.
13) (I' m aware HAARP is not a new conspiracy, but it's really got a shot in the arm). Anyway, I should go to bed but a few things are interesting. 1) The scale - there are a lot of people across different languages talking about this 2) It, perhaps unsurprisingly, coexists
14/ with other narratives such as anti-vaccination disinfo 3) It appears partisan, again have a conservative bent (although I imagine in Spanish we'd probably see a far left bent to it) 4) It has taken on an anti-NATO element, especially with regard to Turkey's role vis a vis
15/ ...Russia and Ukraine.
I am not saying this is a Russian influence operation - although as agitprop it works in their favour. It's also good for the Turkish government - potentially distracting some people from focusing on state responsibility in the disaster.
16/ So far though there does appear to be some element of inauthenticity to it - suggesting someone is boosting this narrative. The engagement and virality of lesser known accounts is particularly suspicious. Will keep an eye on it though. Night for now
17) An interesting aspect about the HAARP disinfo is that one of the most shared tweets mentioning the hashtag as early as 6th was not actually talking about HAARP, but telling people to avoid platitudes or construction theories to focus on help. So either using the hashtag
18) simply because it was trending as people tend to do, or for some other reason (i.e. get it trending but without being explicit). Again, shows that disinfo can be amplified without directly discussing it, either to promote it or debunk it. #Disinformation
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🧵1/ Thought I'd zoom in on the data from the Southport riots, especially given the recent arrest of a man in Pakistan - which has prompted some commentators & news outlets to use it as an opportunity to target people of colour once again. Let's look at what happened
2/ A man in Pakistan, Farhan Asif, who ran Channel3NowNews, was just arrested for spreading misinfo. Channel3NowNews used the made-up name "Ali Al Shakati," However, contrary to some right-wing i/allusions, Channel3NowNews was NOT the first to tweet this name, or be arrested
3/ The first known person to post the name "Ali Al Shakati" on X was actually Artemisfornow, aka Bernie Spofforth, a wealthy woman from Cheshire. She tweeted the name over an hour before Channel3NowNews. She was arrested over a week ago, and released on bail.
🚨Important thread highlights how X under Musk is putting people at risk
1) This account impersonating a man who helped stop a knife attack in London is still live, & has accumulated well over 1 million impressions.
2) It's history indicates it is a pro-Putin "bot" connected
possibly to Pakistan. However, it also has pro-Ismail Haniyeh & Hamas content
3) Regardless of what you think of Hamas, this is far right rocket fuel. Tommy Robinson already tweeted out the fake account, wrongly accusing him of supporting an "islamist genocidal regime"
4) Despite Musk claiming he would clamp down on impersonator accounts this account has not been suspended yet. This is happening amidst a wave of anti -immigrant and anti-muslim violence in the UK.
🧵🚨This account @abdullahfromuk is impersonating a man who stopped a knife attack in London's Leicester Square. His original account handle was ZartashaPti and he has been tweeting pro-Imran Khan content in Urdu and English for most of his account history.
It has also tweeted content that would suggest it's pro-Vladimir Putin (although not in any particularly sophisticated way). The account is in the process of deleting its tweets, and it looks like a classic sockpuppet farm, for-hire type account.
@jneill has already highlighted some other content from the account, which again includes some Putin apologism
🧵🚨New analysis showing ALL tweets mentioning both "Muslim" & "UK" with over 500 retweets since 29 Jul. Graph shows which accounts got most impressions over time. Red/pink dots show anti-Muslim &/or anti-immigrant tweets, brown=neutral, green=tweets defending Muslims #UKRiots
2/ I grouped the tweets into the following three categories, 'anti', 'in defense of', and 'neutral'. Sadly the impressions gained by the number of 'anti' tweets was over 155 million (65%) while those 'in defense of' around 31 million. Neutral tweets were about 50 million.
3/ Parsing them finer we see that that the majority of the tweets were anti-Muslim, with half as many being both anti immigrant and both anti-Muslim. Some were solely anti-immigrant. #UKRiots
🧵🚨1/Somewhat depressing graph. I calculated whether all X posts with over 500 retweets mentioning the words "Muslim" and "UK" sent since 29th July were anti-muslim, anti-immigrant (red), neutral (blue), or in defense of muslims and/or immigration (green). #Ukriots #hatespeech
2/ I grouped the tweets into the following three categories, 'anti', 'in defense of', and 'neutral'. Sadly, the impressions gained by the number of 'Anti' tweets was over 159 million (67%), while those in defense of around 28 million. Neutral tweets were about 50 million
3/ Some of the most xenophobic and anti-muslim accounts include. @radiogenoa @goldingbf @tpointuk @jimfergusonuk @ashleasimonbf @europeinvasionn The degree of hate varies, from outright conspiracy theories, to suggestions that Muslims enjoy special treatment by the police.
🧵🚨I wanted to do another thread on the account @EuropeInvasionn. It's been one of the most widely viewed anti-immigrant & anti-muslim disinfluencers on X since the #Southport murders. Read more to learn about its shocking reach, disinformation, & hate speech #UKRiots
2/ Reminder. @Europeinvasionn is engaged in deception. We can tell this because it's a hijacked account. The account was created in 2010, but hacked/sold & scrubbed & has only tweeted since Feb 24. It's previous handle was makcanerkripto. Note the 'crypto' red flag...
3/ First up. Impressions. Since 27th July, the account has racked up over 133,475,023 impressions. To put that in words, that's one hundred thirty-three million four hundred seventy-five thousand and twenty-three. That is phenomenal.