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Ben Nimmo @benimmo
, 9 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Thread: If you still wonder whether RT is one of the Russian state's information weapons, its own editor-in-chief says so.
medium.com/dfrlab/questio…
RT ed-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said RT was "conducting the information war against the entire Western world" in Georgia in 2008. Source: kommersant.ru/doc/1911336
She defends RT by comparing it with the Russian Ministry of Defence. Same source.
This is Simonyan - allegedly a journalist - talking about how and when to use the "information weapon", in an interview about RT. Source: lenta.ru/articles/2013/…
Why is RT trying to build its audience? To fight the next "information war," like Georgia in 2008, but better.
What were the main lessons of the Georgian war, for RT's ed-in-chief? Lesson 1: Russia needs fluent English-speakers to argue its position, and a PR office for its wars.
Lesson 2: RT's job is to represent Russia in an information war.
RT's parent company, TV-Novosti, is around 99% funded from the Russian state budget. Source: unro.minjust.ru/reports/548647…
Now look at how RT behaves in its reporting. In 2014, Ofcom found it guilty of almost completely leaving out the Ukrainian position in its coverage of Crimea. Source: ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
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Thread, in the interest of there being a clear record:

Sputnik has made a number of false statements about me.

This matters, because facts still matter.

Evidence follows. Will a retraction follow too?

cc @SputnikInt
1. Sputnik said I have "no discernible history" in political journalism.

In fact, I was EU and NATO correspondent for @dpa_intl. That fact is discernible, because it's in my Atlantic Council bio.

atlanticcouncil.org/about/experts/…
More: Sputnik +quoted+ my bio in the same article, and provided the link.

Looks like @SputnikInt either:

a) didn't read it;
b) didn't understand it;
or
c) chose to suppress a material fact.
Read 11 tweets
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Ha, looks like I really pissed off the Kremlin "information weapon" (to quote its own editor-in-chief).

They hate it when someone reveals how they work by citing actual evidence.
Looks like this is what triggered them. @thetimes on the role of Sputnik's parent company, which is to "secure the interests of the Russian Federation in the information sphere."

Sputnik claims that doesn't apply to them. Seriously.

H/t @macca808

thetimes.co.uk/article/edinbu…
Source for that quote? The founding charter of the Rossiya Segodnya agency, which is Sputnik's parent.

Evidence here: medium.com/dfrlab/putinat…
Read 10 tweets
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Aaaand it's takedown time in #Bangladesh too.

@Twitter and @Facebook both just announced takedowns of a small number of inauthentic assets, possibly tied to state actors.

Some initial analysis with the great @karankanishk here, for @DFRLab:

medium.com/@DFRLab/electi…
Here's @TwitterSafety's take on it: a small number of assets, possibly state-linked.

15 accounts so far, low follower numbers, engaged in coordinated platform manipulation.

And here's @fbnewsroom: six accounts, nine pages. Taken down for coordinated inauthentic behaviour, i.e. a network of counterfeit accounts.

"Linked to individuals associated with the #Bangladesh government."

newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/12/t…
Read 12 tweets

Related threads

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STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT BUHARI CONSTITUTES COMMITTEE ON AUTONOMY OF STATE LEGISLATURE AND STATE JUDICIARY

#Thread
President @MBuhari has constituted a Presidential Implementation Committee on Autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary in accordance with the 4th Alteration to the 1999 Constitution.
The purpose of the committee is to drive the actualization of the autonomy granted to the legislature and judiciary at the State level, and membership is as follows:
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Let's take a closer look at @Breaking9111, a "news feed" account with ~335K followers that turns up semi-frequently in our analyses as well as on the feeds of various accounts (mostly right wing).

cc: @ZellaQuixote
Like many "news feed" accounts, @Breaking9111 is partially automated, both via social media automation service Hootsuite and something called "BREAKING NEWS testing", which is likely a script the operator(s) created themselves that operates via the Twitter API.
This account appears to have engaged in some name-swap shenanigans. Prior to 11/3, @Breaking9111 appears to have been named @Breaking911, which has now been replaced with a two and a half year old account with a default profile pic and no tweets.
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#Thread

Why I decided to oppose @MBuhari - @bukolasaraki addresses followers in Kwara State 👇

"All that you have complained about tonight is on point, I can not find anything you have said that is not on point, you complained about empowerment" @bukolasaraki
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#Thread on the Ghosts of #Aadhaar

Are subsidies, benefits and services from the Consolidated Fund of india being siphoned by the Ghosts and duplicates of Aadhaar?
In order to assign an #Aadhaar number at least two Primary IDs are required by the UIDAI - one as proof of identity and another as a proof of address. uidai.gov.in/enrolment-upda…
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#THREAD

#RogerStone #Guccifer2 #Assange #Farage #Trump
1.#RogerStone and #Guccifer2 had at least 16 contacts during the 2016 Election cycle.

#RogerStone #Guccifer2 #Assange #Farage #Trump

2..#Guccifer2 is identified as a #Russian #GRU operative.

#RogerStone #Guccifer2 #Assange #Farage #Trump

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Arkadiy Babchenko is alive. This is mind-boggling
Even within the SBU this was a highly compartmentalized operation, a couple of people only knew details .
Splainer: SBU/ Babchenko say RU services recruited a Ukrainian citizen to hire a contract killer. He hired a military veteran for 30k. The vet informed Ukraine's secret service & collaborated to fool "broker" that murder went thru. This permitted SIGNIT to track source of order.
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