In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American social media personality, Matt Wallace (@mattwallace888). He's best-known for simping on Elon Musk, and for spreading the most outrageous lies and conspiracy theories online, thus monetizing his social media accounts.
1/20
By his own words, Matt is a "successful entrepreneur and social media personality who creates high value content", but he's actually just a grifter who has allegedly made a lot of money with so-called pump and dump schemes related to cryptocurrencies.
2/20
Pumping and dumping basically means a situation where you promote a crypto/stock/whatever heavily to increase its price and then sell your share. Pump and dump schemes are extremely popular with cryptocurrencies.
3/20
Incidentally, Wallace also tried to start his own crypto, Accept Crypto. The token naturally tanked, and they claimed to be making "a recission for investors."
His strategy of staying relevant and increasing his engagement, in addition to spreading fake news, is sucking up to Elon. He's the "Elon reply guy", and often tweets about how "cool" Musk actually is, while farming for likes and shares.
5/20
Perhaps due to this,Matt is just another of the many conspiracy theorists who were accepted to the X/Twitter's subscription pool and also gets plenty of ad share revenue from the platform. All this revenue comes from the disinformation & conspiracy theories he spreads daily.
6/20
The thing is, Matt doesn't even try the Russian method of mixing half-truths with lies - he just makes shit up. But don't take my word for it, here are some of Matt's outrageous claims without a single source:
- Obama's were connected to Epstein's trafficking ring.
7/20
- The Obama's were somehow connected to the death of one of their staff members.
- The anti-Semite conspiracy theorist and country star Oliver Anthony turned down deals worth 8 million USD.
- That he made 912 551 USD from X/Twitter revenue.
8/20
Matt has heavily promoted conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, Bill Gates, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, and many other prominent figures. By connecting these lies and representing them as a "globalist conspiracy" has made Wallace one of the fastest growing accounts on X.
9/20
Lately his focus has been on conspiracy theories related to the Maui wildfires, in which he spreads lies about the whole incident being organized by the rich elites.
We can safely expect to see these fake images in the future, too.
10/20
And here's a perfect example of why X in its current stage is completely broken: Matt claims that in this video "Transgender student nearly kills female student after she said she did not want them in the girls' locker room/bathroom". An outrageous claim...
11/20
...without actual proof, as @shayan86 showed. The tweet itself had over 12 million impressions, 57 000 likes and was shared over 20 000 times. It doesn't even have Community Notes. This is exactly how "rage farming" works: invoke strong emotions to garner a huge engagement.
12/20
Naturally, he has also spread lies and made-up stories about the war in Ukraine. He's hopped on the trendy "This is how Kyiv/Ukraine looks in the middle of war" bandwagon, but also spreads stories about Ukraine being a ...
13/20
...money laundering scheme, and claims that Ukraine is losing the war. All of this is completely cynical: he doesn't care about the war, but about the engagement and reaction he can get from these hot takes and outright lies.
14/20
It's worth mentioning, that apparently Matt was initially against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but at some point that changed, probably because the contrarian comments garnered more views, shares and likes. See in the screenshot, how his support for Ukraine in...
15/20
...Mar 2022 got mere 8 likes, whereas his latest lie about Putin banning OnlyFans got close to a million views and over 20 000 likes. The same has been evident from many accounts that turned pro-Kremlin, including Malaysian grifter Ian Miles Cheong aka @stillgray.
16/20
Wallace utilizes heavily the "Firehose of Falsehood" propaganda model.He creates content for basically every platform imaginable. In similar fashion to @jacksonhinklle,Matt also mobilizes his followers on TG & Patreon to promote his content elsewhere:
17/20
Now, we shouldn't underestimate Matt's influence: he has over 1,2 million followers on X (this number was +300k in Jan 2023), his YouTube channels have 240k and 40k subscribers, IG has over 30k followers, and his Patreon has over 300 donors.
18/20
To conclude: @mattwallace888 is one of the biggest accounts pushing conspiracy theories, pro-Kremlin narratives and lies on X/Twitter. The account is fully monetized, and supported by @elonmusk. All this lying and sucking up to Elon is actually making him a rich man.
19/20
Therefore, Matt Wallace is a so-called "super-spreader" of disinformation and fake news.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an attempt to create a pro-Kremlin fifth column in Ghana, Africa. This attempt was done by two prominent propagandists, @DD_Geopolitics (DDG) and Simeon "AussieCossack" Boikov.
This research was conducted by the Unintelligence Agency.
1/20
Recently, Niger became another African country where the army seized control of the government and ditched the remnants of the French colonialism. Before this, the same had happened in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Chad, all former French colonies.
2/20
Now, there's nothing wrong with getting rid of old colonial powers, but one should remember that all this was done with strong presence of pro-Kremlin powers like PMC Wagner. They've been accused of executing and raping civilians in Mali, and many of the new military...
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Swedish social media personality, Merdan E AKA @mdfzeh. He's best-known for threatening pro-Ukrainian voices, and for desperately trying to delete his social media accounts.
This research was conducted by the Unintelligence Agency.
1/7
This soup was brewed, not because Merdan is a prominent or notable figure in the vatnik scene, but because he threatened me and my imaginary girlfriend.
As of today, his activities and his associates have been reported to the Swedish police.
2/7
Merdan's family is originally from Turkmenistan, and his father came to Sweden from Russia in 1994. He was granted political asylum and eventually became a Swedish citizen. Unlike his son, the father claims to be "integrated into Swedish society".
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a German right-wing and populist political party, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD (@AfD). The party is best-known for their Euroskeptic and pro-Kremlin politics, and for having strong political and financial ties to the Kremlin.
1/19
The party was established in 2013, in the wake of the surge of many conservative, right-wing political parties around Europe. Throughout the years, the party has moved further to the far-right, and has taken stronger opposition against immigration, Islam and the EU.
2/19
AfD has become the most popular far-right political party in Germany since WW II. In a recent poll, the party was second strongest party with over 20% support. They've increase their support especially in the "adaptive-pragmatic" middle classes.
In today's #vatniksoup,I'll introduce a Russian diplomat, SVR officer & First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Alekseevich Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un). He's best-known for promoting Western,pro-Kremlin fake news blogs & individuals like @TheGrayzoneNews.
1/22
Dima was previously stationed in Warsaw, from where he then moved on to work in New York to work under Vasily Nebenzya, the current Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, and the man who had to announce the infamous "Ukrainian combat mosquitos".
2/22
Now, before we move on, it's worth mentioning that Dima is actually an officer of SVR, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.He comes from the so-called PR or Public Relations line, so he's not exactly the James Bond of the agency, but he still has a lot of influence & power.3/22
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an Italian sociologist, academic and talk show host, Alessandro Orsini (@orsiniufficiale). He's best-known for his pro-Kremlin & anti-NATO/Ukraine comments on the Russo-Ukrainian War on Italy's public broadcasting TV channel, @raitre.
1/18
Orsini hails from the academic world, and his currently working as the director and founder of the LUISS Observatory on International Security. His work has focused on the sociology of terrorism, an important topic that has absolute nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.
2/18
Embarrassed by the Orsini's comments, LUISS University initially issued a statement on Mar 2022, reiterating its "full solidarity with the Ukrainian people" and distance itself from Orsini.
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Bulgarian politician and current President, Rumen Radev (@PresidentOfBg). He's best-known for offering his unwavering support for Vladimir Putin and his genocidal war in Ukraine, and for resisting all European aid to Ukraine.
1/22
Radev joined the Bulgarian Communist Party during the 80s. He later stated that he did this in order to become a military pilot, but also emphasized that he wasn't ashamed of what he did and was actually proud of his achievements. He only left the party after a new law...
2/22
... forbid military personnel to be members of political parties. He hasn't been a member of any political party ever since and the support for his presidential candidacy came from an independent initiative committee affiliated the pro-Russian party BSP.