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Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
@DucuGavril
Apr 5 • 9 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Writers of the Storm — Who’s Behind the Kremlin’s Ongoing Narrative Machine

Disinformation doesn’t just appear.
It’s authored.
This series exposes the network—the people, platforms, and tactics behind a coordinated campaign to launder pro-Russian narratives into Western information spaces.

#WritersOfTheStorm #DisinformationNetwork
1. Meet the Network — Storm-1516 and the R-FBI

Fake news sites.
Fake NGOs.
Real people, real reach.
This thread introduces the disinfo infrastructure mapped by Clemson University.

#Storm1516 #InfoOps
2. Narrative Laundering — How Russian Lies Look Like Western News

Why false claims hide inside real headlines.
And how repetition, formatting, and trust mimicry turn propaganda into plausible content.

#NarrativeLaundering #InformationWarfare
3. The New Faces of Influence — From Ex-Cops to Fake Journalists

Profiles of the people fronting the network: Dougan, Bartlett, Beeley, Reade, and more.
Not bots. Not trolls. Real names laundering state narratives.

#DisinfoPurveyors #WritersOfTheStorm
4. R-FBI & the BRICS Journalist Association — Trust Theater at Scale

Fake NGOs pretending to defend rights.
In reality: content hubs for Kremlin talking points.
This is credibility as costume.

#PropagandaInfrastructure #FakeNGOs
5. Viral Lies, Real Impact — How Storm-1516 Hijacked the Zelensky Conversation

From “Cartier-gate” to puppet claims—
This thread shows how the network built and spread false narratives about Zelensky.

#ZelenskyDisinfo #NarrativeVirality
6. Why It Works — Familiar Faces, Familiar Formats, Familiar Lies

Storm-1516 succeeds not by shock, but by comfort.
It feels like journalism.
That’s what lets the lies slip through.

#CognitiveSecurity #DisinformationTactics
📄 Full source:
Writers of the Storm: Who’s Behind the Ongoing Production of Pro-Russian False Narratives - Clemson University Media Forensics Hub (Oct 2024)
🔗 open.clemson.edu/cgi/viewconten…

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Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture

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More from @DucuGavril

Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 7
Infobesity — Too Much to Think.

We used to worry about censorship.
Now the threat is the opposite:
Too much information.
More than we can verify.
More than we can absorb.

And it’s making us vulnerable.

#PostTruth #Infobesity #Disinformation
“Infobesity” = information overload.

A flood of headlines, posts, opinions, outrage, clickbait, fact checks, and noise.
All day. Every day.

More than we can process.
This isn’t just exhausting.
It’s strategic.

Too much information makes truth harder to find—and easier to ignore.
Read 9 tweets
Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 7
Disinformation ≠ Misinformation — The Language of Distortion.

We throw around terms like “fake news” and “disinfo.”
But if we don’t define them clearly, we help the problem spread.

Let’s break down the differences—and why they matter.
#Disinformation #PostTruth #MediaLiteracy

Not all falsehoods are created equal.

Some are accidental.
Some are deliberate.
Some are designed to do damage.

The distinctions aren’t just academic—they’re strategic.
🔹 Misinformation
False or misleading info—spread without intent to deceive.

Example:
Your uncle shares a fake story about vaccines because he thinks it’s true.

It’s wrong. But it’s not calculated.
Read 9 tweets
Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 6
From Bikers to Broadcasters — The Night Wolves and Russia’s Cultural Influence Machine

This isn’t a troll farm story.
It’s a story about identity, spectacle, and narrative power.
This series unpacks how the Kremlin uses the Night Wolves biker gang as political micro-influencers—across borders and platforms.

#NightWolves #NarrativeWarfare
1. Meet the Night Wolves — The Kremlin’s Most Loyal Biker Gang

A fringe motorcycle club becomes a state-aligned cultural asset—blending patriotism, performance, and propaganda.

#InfluenceOps
Read 11 tweets
Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 4
Beyond the Ballot: The Psychological Battlefield of Election Trust

Adversaries don’t need to hack votes.
They just need to make you believe the votes don’t matter.
That’s the real front line now:
Not ballots, but belief.

#TrustWarfare #ElectionIntegrity
The FDD memo makes one thing clear:
Foreign election interference has shifted from attacking systems to attacking perception.

Confidence

Legitimacy

Shared reality
That’s the battlefield.
What does that look like?

Doubt before the vote

Outrage during the count
Cynicism after the result
The goal is to make the process feel broken—regardless of whether it was.
Read 16 tweets
Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 4
China’s Strategic Patience: Eroding U.S. Trust Without Taking Credit

China’s election interference strategy is quieter than Russia’s subtler than Iran’s but no less real
It works by amplifying U.S. dysfunction—not inventing it
And targets what China cares about most: perception
#ChinaNarrativeOps #DisinfoByDesign

The FDD memo puts it plainly:
China’s disinformation aims to:
Undermine confidence in U.S. democracy
Deflect criticism of China

Promote authoritarian stability as a contrast to “Western chaos”
Unlike Russia or Iran, China doesn’t often create fake U.S. identities.
Instead, it uses:

State media outlets
Proxy influencers
Bots and comment armies

Its voice is official, even when masked.
Read 16 tweets
Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴🇩🇪🇺🇲🇳🇱🇪🇺@🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 4
Russia’s Roadmap for Chaos: From the IRA to Today’s Influence Networks
Russia didn’t stop after 2016.
It learned.
Adapted.
And refined its election interference strategy into a long-term psychological campaign.
Here’s how it works—and why it still does.
#RussiaDisinfo #ElectionInterference

Russia’s goal isn’t to help a candidate win.
It’s to make voters lose faith—
In the system
In the media
In each other
As the FDD memo puts it: “Russia aims to destabilize democracy by undermining belief in electoral legitimacy.”
The model dates back to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), active in 2016.

Fake American personas

Emotionally charged content

Focus on race, identity, and fraud
It wasn’t hacking. It was narrative warfare.
Read 18 tweets

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