🧵1. This is an analysis of 30,000 tweets spreading disinformation about the #TurkeySyriaEarthquake . The #disinformation in question is the false story that 8-10 Western countries withdrew their ambassadors before the earthquake. The analysis indicates manipulation
2/ Dozens of identical tweets (see vid) were shared and retweeted thousands of times. They took aim at Canada, USA, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Holland and France. Not quite sure what the reason for this selection was. It may relate to the fact at least some of those
3/ countries had envoys summoned by Turkey after they temporarily shut embassies & issued security warnings following Koran-burnings in Europe. Anyway this was days before the Earthquake. The countries are in NATO, and all contribute a lot of assistance to Ukraine
4/ Not sure if that's relevant, as the list doesn't seem to have an explanation. The conspiracy in question is that these countries knew that HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program )was weaponized to create the earthquake. HAARP was a former US program designed to
5/ investigate the ionosphere. Many sharing the conspiracy have also been saying that it was a way of NATO punishing Turkey for hindering Finland's and Sweden's membership. So the HAARP conspiracy, & this ambassador one, seems explicitly anti-NATO and implicitly pro-Russia
6/ So who are the influencers. It's a who's who of strangelove. There's @DavidWolfe, a sort of new-age superfood, @AntonioTweets2 an anti-Trudeau account, @iluminatibot an, erm, Illuminati bot, and @crankycrab1171, an Australian, presumably with crabs that's making them cranky
7/ They have thousands of retweets of their disinformation and they are all serial disinfo enthusiasts (disinfluencers). The most cohesive community of people retweeting them are MAGA, pro-Trump accounts. After, 'love' 'God' and 'truth', 'MAGA' was the most common word in bios
8/ A very interesting aspect. Of those promoting the conspiracy, there are some anomalies. In April and October 2022 a disproportionately large number of accounts were created in a short space of time, almost a thousand accounts in a 6 days span, way above average. #disinfo 8
9/ Indeed, around 8-9% of all accounts created between 2006 and 2023 were created in just two months, April and October 2022. Most of them appears to be - again, right-wing MAGA accounts with generic profile descriptions. Patriots, god etc.
10/ The fact such a spike of accounts was created on those dates is suspect, and points to potential manipulation. Will try do more digging. Either way, it continues to be obscene how many people exploit grief and tragedy to grift conspiracies based on no evidence. - ttfn
11/ Just wanted to add a bit of detail about the network graph to show what the different clusters mean. It's oddly symmetrical.
12/ As you can see the story is proliferating on @facebook too. All these screenshots of the conspiracy....
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1/ Another key aspect of this campaign was the part targeting #Lebanon. The accounts below are all linked to the campaign. All of them attempt to interfere in Lebanese politics by riling up sectarian sentiment, diverting blame away from Israel and focusing on Iran and Hezbollah
2/ These groups, with names like "No to the Iranian Occupation", "Shia Against War", and "the war of 2006 is remembered and will not be repeated" position themselves as groups representing real people. They all use similar TTPs & identical branding strategies. All have been
3/ suspended from Facebook but not Twitter, and many have run ads. Shia Against War, for example, paid to advertise content from the Tahoror movement (see right). However Tahoror denied any involvement with the group.
1/ 📝Excited to announce the release of "The Qatar Plot," authored by myself & @SohanDsouza. This investigation (covered in @afp today) reveals a massive influence op targeting Qatar & Muslims, including in the US, UK and EU - ahead of European Elections sites.google.com/view/theqatarp…
2/ 🚨 Our findings uncover a vast network spreading xenophobic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration, and anti-Qatar disinformation. The operation spanned platforms like Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, and TikTok. To a lesser extent, the op also target Iran🌐 #Disinfo #Islamophobia
3/ 🇫🇷🇬🇧🇺🇸 Targeted countries include France, the UK, the USA, Germany, Spain, Sweden Saudi,and more. This network reached millions, manipulating ,public sentiment with at least 41 million reached on Facebook alone (and this is a conservative estimate). 📈 #QatarPlotReport
🧵1/ There is some confusion going on around the strike in Rafah. This is largely due to awful IDF instructions. In a video on 22nd May IDF spokesman @AvichayAdraee told people that Zones 2371, 2373, 2360 were safe. I have highlighted this below.
2/ The source of the confusion lies in the fact that the image of the highlighted map in @AvichayAdraee's video DOES NOT match the text. The image initially does not include zones 2371, 2373, 2360 yet the text explicitly states they are safe.
3/ However the location of the strike has been reported to be both 2371 and 2372. Existing geolocation by @m_osint and Al Jazeera suggests it was in 2372, not 2371. Zone 2372 was not explicitly mentioned by the IDF. However...
1) Telegraph subtly trying to align pro-Palestinian voices with Chinese and Russian disinformation. No actual evidence is provided here of Chinese and Russian interference, simply a note that some pro-Palestinian accounts have fake followers.
2) (It should be noted that you can't control who follows you). From my point of view there are a LOT of fake accounts on X promoting various points of view. However, there is more evidence for Israel using fake accounts on FB, Insta and X to smear UNRWA aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/19…
3) Interestingly, the network that was focusing on attacking UNRWA, is also focusing on blaming the Chinese/Russian/Iranian 'axis of evil'. While it's plausible China and Russia are trying to influence narratives, the narrative that China and Russia are the only ones operating
🧵1/ Israel are attempting to muddy the waters around the killing of an international UN worker in a clearly marked vehicle. They have released a video claiming that "terrorists" are roaming and shooting at a UNRWA compound. There's no evidence that indicates they are
2/ terrorists. The video shows armed men mingling with what are probably UN workers. There is no sense of coercion or animosity in those shots. Crucially, there is no caveat that these people might not be factions or Hamas police protecting aid convoys.
3/ The US has even asked Israel to stop targeting Hamas police officers trying to protect aid. Naturally the video provides no context, and remember the IDF are an organisation that recently murdered multiple aid workers in clearly marked vehicles.
🧵1/ I am somewhat dismayed (though sadly unsurprised) by this extremely disingenuous and callous reporting about Palestinian death figures. Claims that the UN have revised down its death toll are absolutely untrue but have been repeated by right wing outlets but also the CFR 🤔
2/ These media are focusing on these two infographics by the @ochaopt . The one on the left, published 6th May, the one on the right published 8th May. As you can see, total fatalities INCREASE, as opposed to decrease. What the propaganda is seaking to do is barely sophistry
3/All that's happening is the OCHA has added figures for the dead that have been identified. It quite clearly says that the breakdown DOES NOT include 10000 missing or buried under rubble.