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David Leask Profile picture
David Leask
@LeaskyHT
Reporter
Jan 7 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I have a little article in today’s Sunday Times that - I think - should be a real “woah, wait, what?” moment for scholars and journalists. Essentially somebody impersonating academics has been pitching AI-written propaganda as op-eds to the media. 🧵
thetimes.co.uk/article/0e1a33… 1/ First, we really don’t have a good idea of what is going on here. But stories are being pitched - and sometimes accepted - for publication bogging up the importance of Kazakhstan. They are in the names of respectable mid-career scholars but written - tests confirm - using AI.
Aug 22, 2023 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
One of the most dispiriting aspects of trying to talk about language study decline in Scotland is how quickly some people try to use the issue to bash indigenous minoritized languages. Quick thread. I think this is partly cos so many very opinionated people don’t actually have anything to say about the big picture crisis so they pivot to well-worn talking points attacking minorities.
Jun 30, 2023 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
There are more people who say they speak Scots than there are SNP voters. Wee thread. 1/ I’ll declare an interest: I love languages and linguistics and am a journeyman-grade translator as well as a working hack reporter. I’m not sure whether to describe myself as a Scots speaker or not. I think that is true of lots of people.
Aug 14, 2022 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
A Russian tried and failed to lure Scottish nationalists to Moscow. He has now been formally linked to Putin’s secret police. It’s, well, a big deal. heraldscotland.com/politics/20629…. In a way this is a story about something that did not happen. It might be tempting to turn away or to resort to the usually idiot partisanship. heraldscotland.com/politics/20629…
Aug 9, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Editors! Publishers! Your failure to disable comments on stories about Ukraine remains a significant disinformation risk. Please sort this out. This risk has been clear since before the latest stage in Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Aug 6, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Several Scottish elected members current and past, social media influencers and journalists this week shared misinformation about tens of thousands of dead Russian conscripts in Ukraine cos of a dimwit-grade local Twitter row. How many will fix this error? heraldscotland.com/opinion/206042… Most of this was just an innocent nonsense thrown up by cockamamie internet politics. But some of the people talking nonsense about Putin’s army this week have a track record of doing so. heraldscotland.com/politics/19984…
Aug 6, 2022 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Scottish politicians, social media warriors and even some journalists this week spent a couple of news cycles on a row about of a deleted post by Nicola Sturgeon. We ended up laundering war misinformation as a result. This was bad, folks. Thread. heraldscotland.com/opinion/206042… 2/ I don’t care much about the original tweet. Nobody should. Other than perhaps to show the dangers of communicating with nothing more than hashtags and emojis. You leave yourself open to a variety of interpretations and misinterpretations.
Aug 4, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
One for the lovely bunch of lads in the “Scots isn’t a language” gang. Guys, you’re not alone. We’re a decade in to radicalised online language politics in Scotland and still the “Scots isn’t a language” brigade haven’t twigged out unbelievably pedestrian and routine their prejudices are by European standards.
Jul 16, 2022 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
I see some U.K. commentators are once again declaring that Orkney and Shetland will break away from an Indy Scotland because they are somehow not Scottish. This is fantasy. Let’s look at why. A disclaimer; I’m a deracinated Orcadian.
Feb 14, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
If you are repeating Kremlin talking points - eg Ukrainians are Nazis, Nato is warmongering - there is a chance your words will end up laundered as a Scottish/British view for a domestic Russian audience. This includes below the line comments in U.K. papers. Be careful out there. You may not see yourself as a disinformation actor - or an easy mark for an authoritarian regime’s propaganda. You might think you’re having your say for a U.K. audience, or just being “smart” in front of your mates. But your words could have consequences.
Jul 16, 2021 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Vladimir Putin: muscular unionist? There are fascinating echoes between the rhetoric of greater Russia nationalism and British nationalism. Thread. heraldscotland.com/politics/19445… 2/ I’ve only dipped my toes in to this issue in today’s @heraldscotland. And as always we have to be cautious about comparisons between national questions in the U.K. and elsewhere. Cautious not to overstate them and also cautious not to dismiss them altogether.
Apr 2, 2021 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Putin’s RT has resumed its now familiar conspiracist attacks on the SNP over the last 24 hours or so. But this is actually a great case study of how substandard journalism can be useful to disinformation vehicles. Bear with me for a quick thread. 1/ This is a classic of the genre. Amid all sorts of other ridiculous insinuations, RT’s reporter repeats a claim that an SNP delegation to Ukraine was “opaquely funded”. Sounds fishy, right?
Feb 14, 2021 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Twitter should disable the accounts of people who falsely claim the complainers in unsuccessful sex crime prosecutions are “proven false witnesses” or “liars” or “conspirators” unless these complainers are convicted of perjury or another crime in relation to their testimony. 1/ 2/ Why? First, cos it betrays a basic misunderstanding of how justice works - an acquittal is not evidence a witness or complainer perjured themselves. & 2nd it discourages other people who from coming forward and seeking justice.
Feb 14, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
At the risk of being accused of paranoia, I’m genuinely wondering whether reactionaries - the kind of unemployable knuckle-dragging dolts who think gender studies is woke or easy - orchestrate below-the-line attacks. Hey, maybe Victor Orban fans just turn up en masse by chance. Isn’t it especially interesting how online commenters who dislike one academic discipline or another declare it to be easy as well as worthless. Gender studies, they’ll say. Pah: You should learn maths instead. Let’s be honest, these folk have never learned anything.
Mar 31, 2019 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Warning: Slightly nerdy thread coming up. I think some politicians and journalists in Ukraine are getting the wrong end of the stick about Scottish shell firms. And this is leading to unsubstantiated allegations of corruption. 1/ heraldscotland.com/news/17540445.… 2/ So this weekend the husband of one of Ukraine's best known politicians - Yulia Tymoshenko - was linked with a nasty arms export corruption scandal that came out a few years ago featuring one of Scotland's notorious SLPs. I'm not sure this was fair.
Jan 22, 2019 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Sometimes, when you are flicking through the papers or scrolling down your favourite social media account, there is a wee story you should stop and read. I think this is one of those times. heraldscotland.com/news/17374527.… 1. This story comes from @Angelo_Mincuzzi has his colleagues at @sole24ore and @irpinvestigates. The original and longer Italian version is here. ilsole24ore.com/art/finanza-e-…
Dec 9, 2018 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
A Scottish newspaper has channeled direct Kremlin messaging right on to its front, page, including key buzzwords. This is an absolutely fascinating case study in how - every now and again - propaganda talking points from authoritarian regimes break in to the mainstream. Thread. 2. It's very unlikely that the Sunday Mail twigged that when it used "black ops' about the counter-propaganda campaign @InitIntegrity that it was echoing words used by Sputnik, which is one of the current Russian government's self-described "information weapons'
Sep 3, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
One of the many disheartening things about the media/social media/real life response to recent #metoo stuff is quite how many people think that anything short of conviction of an alleged sex offender means alleged victims lied. Wee crime corr thread. 1/ 2/ I know internet partisans like their world to be oh-so-simple and black and white, goodies and baddies. But I guess most of us know the real world is not like that? There can be a lot of gray out there.
May 14, 2018 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Wings Over Scotland has once again misrepresented me knowing full well that such blogs can result in, at the very least, social media dogpiling. His blog is full or errors. We need to address these. Thread. wingsoverscotland.com/the-new-world-… 1. Wings says he is a media monitor. He claims I am the chief reporter of The Sunday Herald. This is incorrect, as even a cursory familiarity with Scottish news media would reveal.