The amount of disinformation circulating on TikTok about Israel-Hamas is astounding.
We're also seeing clear signs of paid disinformation campaigns that started between October 15 and 20 that are well-funded and sophisticated.
A very short 🧵
1/8
Troll farms and "oppositional marketing firms" will hack, create and store, and buy real social media accounts to use for their purposes. Yes, there is a secondary market for people who decide they don't want their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and sell them.
2/8
With election and COVID disinformation, TikTok was too new of a platform for this tactic. Not anymore.
We're seeing a growing number of accounts that went dormant in 2020-2021, with totally new creators talking only about Israel-Palestine, a subject not previously covered.
3/8
A 🧵
I read the news in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic so you don't have to. Local news is a combination of brain damaging Russian propaganda, the same type of new that happens in your home town, and sometimes military intelligence between the lines.
1/13
Tap water has always been an issue in the Donbas back to Soviet times. The region is surprisingly dry despite what you see on the map. When Russia started its war of aggression in 2014, the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas Canal was cut off.
2/13
This made the water situation in the city of Donetsk and the metro area (as the West would call it) in particular, a bigger problem.
In March 2022, the Water of Donbas plant was heavily damaged, creating critical water shortages.
I read the local news sources in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic, so you don't have to. Some of it is brain-damaging Russian propaganda. Some of it is what you would read in your local news. And some of it provides hidden military intelligence.
A shortish 🧵
1/7
Residents of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic are complaining as the price of gas/diesel is skyrocketing, and supply is tight. They don't have shortages, but a station might be out of fuel one day, then another the next.
The Ministry of Coal & Energy was interviewed.
2/7
The spokesperson explained that motor fuel for the DNR is bought from the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange using spot market pricing. The reason?
Local fuel depots in the DNR have been degraded to the point they can't make margin purchases. They have to buy just in time.
3/7
Last week we sounded the alarm on Twitter and the daily Situation Report that while the overall chance of an intentional accident at ZNPP is low, current threats should be taken very seriously
1/21
ZNPP has 6 Soviet-era designed VVER-1000 nuclear reactors and is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe
It can produce 5700 MW of power, and the reactors were commissioned between 1985 and 1996, Reactor 6 is the newest
2/21
To dispel some myths, the only thing ZNPP has in common with Chornobyl is it uses radioactive fuel to produce steam that turns turbines that make electricity
VVER reactors are very different from RBMK reactors and are much closer in design to Western PWR reactors