It's important NOT to overstate the role of Russian interference efforts on social media on the US election.

We've tracked two Russia-linked operations for months - and they've been putting out lots of content.

But most of their fakes consistently failed to get traction... Most Russian fakes about the US election we've seen in the past months never went viral.

The most viewed claims got several million views on X.

Some false posts produced by users in the US got TENS of millions of views.

That's more than anything we've seen from Russian actors

The FBI has warned of two fake videos circulating online aimed at casting doubt around the US presidential election.

These videos are v likely part of a wider Russian campaign @Shayan86 and I’ve been tracking for a long time 🧵 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… The contents of the two clips described in the FBI release exactly match two recent videos that are part of a batch of more than 300 that BBC Verify has found since January, together with @Seana_Davis and @TheOndrakGuy from Logically.

Clips aren’t viral so not posting them here.

In the past few months @Shayan86, @adkrobinson and I have been investigating a vast Russian influence op involving 12,800 fake TikTok accounts pushing disinformation about the war in Ukraine to users in Europe and Israel, and racking up millions of views🧵
bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur… It all started with this video that went viral on X in July.

It claimed that the daughter of Ukraine's now ex-Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov had bought a villa in France.

That's not true. We traced the images to this property website and the agent said it was still for sale

Speculation about Putin’s “cardiac arrest” is gaining millions of views on this platform.

The source? Well, the original source appears to be an anonymous “insider” Telegram channel with a track record of spreading sensationalist rumours about the Kremlin.
Quick 🧵

“General SVR” is one of many anonymous Russian Telegram channels, claiming to have insider knowledge about Russian politics and elites.

The Kremlin is famously secretive so over the years there’s been no shortage of sources providing juicy rumours to fill the void.

Several fake accounts went viral in the aftermath of the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza last night.

Let’s take a look at some of the things to look out for when dealing with unfamiliar accounts in a breaking news situation

First, check the spelling of the account’s handle and any logos.

In the case of the fake “IDF in Arabic” Facebook page the logo was clearly wrong (see IDF’s official Twitter account)

In the past week, Russian officials, media and pro-Kremlin bloggers have been pushing the narrative that Western weapons meant for Ukraine ended up in the hands of Hamas, often using fake or poorly sourced reports as evidence. Let's take a look at some of the allegations. 🧵

On the day of the Hamas attack in Israel last Sat, this video emerged on Russian Telegram implying or claiming to show Hamas fighters thanking Ukraine for supplying weapons. The source of the video in the earliest post I could find said to be Palestinian Telegram channels

The picture of Prigozhin doing the rounds on social media shows him shaking hands with Ambassador Freddy Mapouka, the Director of State Protocol at the Presidency of Central African Republic, at a hotel in St Petersburg. How do we know this? Quick 🧵 We identified the name of the official with the help of brilliant colleagues at @BBCMonitoring. @PaulMyersBBC then compared known pics of the CAR official with the pic featuring Prigozhin and got a 99% match, meaning the two images are of the same man

There’s a lot of talk online about whether Russia is losing the information war over Ukraine. In my opinion, the answer might NOT be as straightforward as it seems. Mini 🧵 So far Russian disinformation efforts (bio labs conspiracy theories, claims about Mariupol “crisis actors”, etc) have seemingly failed to convince many in the West. But convincing many isn’t necessarily the aim.