In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce two American-British social media personalities, Andrew and Tristan Tate (@cobratate and @tatethetalisman). They're best-known for their social media grifts, allegations of human trafficking and rape, and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.
1/18
Andrew used to be a professional kickboxer, and eventually became a four-time world champion. He became to wider public in 2016, when he appeared on Big Brother. He was removed from the show after six days due to an ongoing police investigation for rape.
2/18
Some years later, the brothers launched a group of websites selling training courses on making money and improving in "male-to-female interactions". They also started a webcam business, where up to 75 women were working for him. They admitted the business was a "total scam".
3/18
The brothers launched a website called Hustler's University, a paid platform with an affiliate marketing system, where members receive a commission if they recruit new people to the service. Andrew also encouraged people to spread the content far and wide on social media.
4/18
Their other websites like "The Real World" and "War Room" are also paid services with little meaningful substance. Leaked chat logs showed that the latter even ran a "PhD course" on how to emotionally manipulate women into performing on webcams.
5/18
Throughout the years, Tates have gathered a large, cult-like following and his social media campaigns have reached especially young men - 80% of British boys aged between 16 and 17 had seen Andrew's content, and 45% of British men aged 16–24 had a positive view of him.
6/18
Andrew and his brother have been connected to various far-right figures & conspiracy theorists, including British far-right activist @TRobinsonNewEra, PizzaGate promoter @JackPosobiec, and of course @RealAlexJones.
Andrew's been featured several times on InfoWars.
7/18
Out of the two, Tristan has been much more vocal about the War in Ukraine.
Some of their views most probably come from their late father, Emory, who already back in 2015 wrote that "Why is America silent when Kiev is slaughtering innocents?? Unreal".
8/18
Both Andrew and Tristan are strongly pushing for the "US/Western proxy war" narrative, and neither has never condemned Russia for their invasion of Ukraine. Tristan even claimed that "Western politicians are responsible for the slaughter of a generation of brave young men".
9/18
Tristan has claimed that "Porosenko [sic] overtook the country in a CIA led coup," and then started "murdering" the ethnic Russians. According to him, Putin tried to "mitigate this and the killing for 7+ years," eventually "stepping in" to save them. All this in one tweet.
10/18
He's also has called Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia "breakaway regions," then comparing the situation to China and Taiwan, completely misunderstanding how countries and borders in general work. According to him, Donbas "declared independence" from Ukraine.
11/18
Tristan has naively called to "stop the war," but neither of the brothers ever talks about why this is not possible: it's because Russia has decided to decimate Ukraine and at the same time kill hundreds of thousands of their own men.
12/18
According to Andrew, Putin "cured" COVID after he launched the full-scale invasion to Ukraine. He's also suggested that the war is some kind of money laundering scheme of the elites. And of course it's a proxy war and, according to Tristan, provoked by NATO expansions.
13/18
After Yevgeny Prigozhin and PMC Wagner launched their insurrection against the Kremlin, Tristan tweeted that he's "Praying for all the people of Russia". He's also called Zelenskyy a "criminal", and claimed that he was "spearheading" the humanitarian aid in Feb 2022.
14/18
As a matter of fact, Tristan delivered a bunch of coats and shoes (probably costing ~100 USD) to fleeing Ukrainian refugees, and filmed this for all to see. This way he can show his critics that "he actually cares." He doesn't, he did it for attention and to sell their BS.
15/18
In Dec 2022, Romanian police arrested both Tate brothers and two women. All four were suspected of human trafficking, forming an organized crime group and one of them was suspected of rape. Naturally, they've countered the accusations with their own.
16/18
Recently, various fellow conspiracy theorists like @drloupis have come to defend the Tates, claiming that they "won't be on the Epstein list," using the infamous "I may be an (alleged) sex trafficker and rapist, but at least I'm not a pedophile!" defense.
17/18
In Finland, however, the big brother Andrew is best-known for his tendency to "culturally appropriate" Finnish sauna by sitting on the kid's bench in the measly temperature of 50C, all this while wearing his swimming trunks. And this guy calls himself the "ultimate alpha".
18/18
I have paused personal donations for now, please support @U24_gov_ua by donating to the #HopakChallenge and sending me the receipt:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce the main themes of Russian disinformation on TikTok. Each day, there are thousands of new videos promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and propaganda.
It’s worth noting that Russians can only access European TikTok via VPN.
1/10
There is currently a massive TikTok campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia. The videos typically feature relatively attractive young women and focus on themes of nationalism and cultural heritage.
2/10
Ironically, many of these videos from Moscow or St. Petersburg are deceptively edited to portray Ukraine in a false light — claiming there is no war and that international aid is being funneled to corrupt elites.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.
1/16
Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.
2/16
At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.