Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Assoc Prof @HBKU | Author: Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East & Political Repression in Bahrain | PhD @durham_uni | NR Sen Fellow @dawnmenaorg
@littlegravitas@c.im 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 🇮🇱 🇵🇸 #FBPE Profile picture Dame Chris🌟🇺🇦😷 #RejoinEU #FBPE #GTTO🔶️ Profile picture eDo Profile picture Annette Profile picture Neals Rauhauser Profile picture 38 subscribed
Feb 27 11 tweets 3 min read
🧵It is increasingly clear that ISGAP are operating in a capacity that has nothing to do with antisemitism, but rather malicious disinformation and a war on education. Their latest report is akin to saying ppl in Qatar shouldn't study *anything*, anywhere, lest they nuke us all 2) The highlight is perhaps how they use the third party aggregate edurank to "prove" that @tamuq and @QatarUniversity have "nuclear engineering programs". I don't even think a first year uni student would be this stupid. Neither uni has a nuclear engineering program, but I love Image
Feb 9 7 tweets 3 min read
🧵Although there is more pressure on right-wing and pro-Israel lobbies, most of the reporting on Texas A&M's recent decision to close its Qatar campus in four years cites a report by ISGAP - a pro -Israel think tank, which launched a disinformation campaign about nuclear secrets Image It goes back to this press release on 4th Jan 2024, when ISGAP claimed absurdly that Qatar could exert control over nuclear weapons research. Make no mistake, it's a disinformation campaign. It is also evident that the only people who took it 'seriously' were right wing Image
Feb 2 23 tweets 8 min read
🧵🚨Discovered hundreds of sock puppets promoting Israeli propaganda on X, Threads, FB & Insta. It also includes 'fake' websites. Recently, it has been spreading anti-UNRWA #disinformation, & trying to undermine solidarity between Palestinians & Black people. #Gaza

Analysis 👉 Image 2/ A few people noticed that influential accounts writing about Gaza were getting replies with people linking a @WSJ article about an Israeli 'intelligence' report claiming 10% of UNRWA staff have links to Hamas. One of the authors of the WSJ was a former IDF soldier. Image
Feb 1 16 tweets 5 min read
🧵1/ Analysis of why Israel's UNRWA 'dossier' smearing UNRWA is misleading propaganda.

Indeed, Israel's own statistics actually show that the alleged Hamas presence in UNRWA is significantly LOWER than elsewhere in #Gaza.

Read on for more >
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2/ A number of outlets, including Reuters, Sky News, CNN and Forbes (to name but a few) have run stories about an intelligence dossier provided by Israel (solid source!) attempting to smear UNRWA. @EylonALevy even called UNRWA a 'front' for Hamas'


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Jan 10 5 tweets 2 min read
Google "ICJ HEARING" and "Israel" you'll see the Israeli government have paid Google for another ad putting their propaganda at the top of the search engine. They've done this numerous times, including when Amnesty International called Israel an Apartheid State Image Here's the link to the ad from Google ads transparency. From the Israeli Government Advertising Agency adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR0…
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Dec 10, 2023 11 tweets 5 min read
🧵1/ Several people have pointed out that this video posted of 'Hamas surrendering' has been staged, with several takes. The photo on the left shows a man holding a gun in his right hand. Another video shows the same man holding the gun in his left hand. #disinformation #gaza
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2/ @ramabdu points out here that the man in the photo is being told by an IDF soldier, ' “Khabibi, grab the gun I gave you, but don’t shoot it, we don’t want trouble and march slowly carrying it and put it on the other side on the ground” #disinformation
Dec 8, 2023 13 tweets 6 min read
🚨🧵1/ I have identified around 1900 Twitter/X bots #greenwashing COP28. They are part of a much larger bot network, likely connected to the UAE or a UAE-aligned entity. They post on issues ranging from Sudan to Mauritania. I will focus on #COP28 here though >
#disinformation Image 2/ Firstly. There is a clear division of labour. In other words, the network is split into 'minions' and 'generals'. The minions exist just to like and therefore boost a number of 'generals'. The generals post original content. This visual shows the hierarchy Image
Nov 27, 2023 11 tweets 5 min read
1) OK something very strange has happened here. The BBC took down a video of released prisoner Sara Al Suwaisa due to an incorrect translation that falsely claim she expressed gratitude to Hamas. You can see they say there was an error in the "editing process" #Palestine
Image 2) This translation shown by @RespondCrisis shows a difference in what was said and what was translated. It is a huge difference that points to a really serious "mistranslation" Image
Nov 23, 2023 13 tweets 4 min read
#Gaza. This is interesting. An edited video of an Israeli soldier going into what she claims is a Hamas tunnel near Al Shifa. What's interesting is she mentions Qatar 3 times, and specifically that the tunnel goes under the 'Qatari Compound'. This could be an attempt to either legitimise the Israeli attacks on Qatar's reconstruction HQ, or perhaps more likely, to try and delegitimise Qatar in the eyes of the international community. Qatar are key in mediating the release of hostages but some in Israel wish to discredit Qatar as the mediator, preferring
Nov 3, 2023 10 tweets 4 min read
🚨🧵1/ A few people have asked me about this video, and this account, @Amjadt25. Amjad Taha is a known disinfluencer (someone who routinely spreads disinformation). I will post some examples #GazaGenocide #disinformation Image 2/ Before the Qatar World cup, he was responsible for a viral and false story that claimed Qatar bribed Ecuador to lose their opening game. and pomeps.org/the-bot-iful-g…

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Oct 30, 2023 7 tweets 5 min read
🧵There is no evidence that Shani Louk was beheaded and her entire skull found. However, numerous outlets like @BILD and @newsweek have gone with headlines like, 'These animals chopped off her head', but this is a direct quote from Israel's president @Isaac_Herzog #GazaWar
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2/ who is basing his statement off his recollection of German media reporting - either he is making an assumption or deliberate misrepresentation. His comments about beheading come after he discusses referring to German 'news reels'. Watch his interview

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Oct 25, 2023 10 tweets 4 min read
🧵1/ This tweet from the IDF claims Hamas are hoarding 500,000 litres of fuel. There is no reason for anyone to believe this is true, but let's just assume it is! How much fuel is 500,000 litres? Sounds like a lot, but it's not enough to power #Gaza for 6 hours... #Gazabombing Image 2/ The Gaza Strip needs approx 550MW of electricity, but even before the war only 250MW was available, representing a 55% shortage. Power cuts are part of daily life. Only 44% of this 250MW comes from Gaza's Power Plant, 8% is from Egypt, & 48% from Israeli Electric Company Image
Oct 23, 2023 8 tweets 4 min read
🧵1/ The IDF repeatedly try to justify mass killing of Palestinian civilians by saying that Hamas infrastructure is often near a mosque, school or hospital.

But if we do the math, everywhere in Gaza is close to a mosque, school or clinic 👉
#Gazabombing #GazaUnderAttack
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2/ According to the Palestine Bureau of Statistics, there are 1230 mosques, 158 primary care clinics, and 429 schools in the #Gaza Strip. That's 1817 in total. Gaza is 360 km2, but the livable/buildable area is much smaller. Why? pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_Rainb…


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Oct 19, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
🧵People often talk about Israel's #disinformation "playbook". A good place to start is Benoit's 'image restoration theory'. These are 5 stages of comms strategies designed to try & protect the reputation of an entity committing an act that generates negative PR #GazaHospital Image Stage 1 is where Israel lives - Denial. Say it didn't happen and ideally, blame someone, usually either Palestinians, Hamas, or "terrorists". As we saw from all the fake videos in the wake of the Ahli bombing - provide false evidence to quickly muddy waters (fog of war) Image
Oct 11, 2023 11 tweets 4 min read
🧵So far on X the unconfirmed report about 40 murdered babies have at least 44 million impressions, 300k likes, over 100k reposts (retweets). The key propagators of the story were @i24NEWS_EN and @Israel, the story was based on a report by @Nicole_Zedek Image The original report never claimed 40 babies were decapitated. Zedek reported that soldiers told her that up to '40 babies/children' were killed and '40 babies were taken out on gurneys'. She also stated on X that some babies heads had been cut off. However, those reports, which
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Oct 7, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
1/ I've seen thousands of ppl sharing this awful video of an injured/deceased woman with very few clothes on, being driven away on a truck. Some are saying it's 'fake' or 'old'. The context is not entirely clear but analysis does indicate it's in Gaza. See thread for geolocation Image A clip of the video shows that it's outside AlShafooh Bakery (photo on left). It has a distinctive red/orange structure. You can see images of Al Shafooh bakery online (see photo on right). Note the distinctive red/orange frame.
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Sep 17, 2023 9 tweets 3 min read
🧵After noticing many comments doubting the accusations against #RussellBrand, it made me wonder about soc media algorithms & misogyny. So I did an experiment. What I found was pretty disturbing ≈ 70% of highest ranked comments seemed suspicious about accusations against Brand Image 2/ I used Crowdtangle to download all the Facebook posts from verified news organisations reporting the #RussellBrand story. I then sorted them by the number of comments. I analysed the top 5 'most relevant' comments on the 25 most commented on posts. Image
Aug 28, 2023 14 tweets 6 min read
1) So @MuhammedKambal and @khalidalbaih raised concerns about a piece of sketchy news being shared by pro-RSF accounts in #Sudan. The news claims to be from a site called @EuroPostAgency The site is clearly part of a #disinformation network. I will highlight some things here > Image 2) Firstly, the news being shared indicates that the Sudanese army had some meeting with Boko Haram, considered by many states to be a terrorist organisation. A fairly obvious attempt to smear by association. Fits with pro-RSF propaganda Image
Jul 10, 2023 14 tweets 5 min read
🧵Thread 1/ The many faces of #disinformation on Medium. I wanted to do a thread to show how disinformation fake accounts on Medium follow a remarkably similar pattern to Twitter. Also bonus content on anti-Muslim brotherhood narratives.

Does anyone Remember Samantha Ali? 2/ Of course you might!

Samantha Ali was the face of a recent campaign to spread climate-related propaganda around the UAE hosting Cop28.

Only then she wasn't Samantha Ali, she was Rebecca Klein. She changed profile pictures and bio after the expose. But she's still verified!
Jun 9, 2023 11 tweets 6 min read
🧵1/ Ready for a sockpuppet odyssey that goes from Twitter to Medium? Meet Rebecca Klein. She's an 'Israel' based in Dubai, has a fantastic set of chompers, & a verified account. She also loves the UAE, and by the looks of things, spaghetti junctions. #deception #disinformation Image 2/ Klein was part of a network promoting Cop28 in UAE. Following my thread, the network took evasive action, changing their usernames (this is called handle switching). As you can see, Klein became Samantha Ali.

Also, 'Forgetting Rebecca Klein' is a great movie title. Image
Jun 2, 2023 16 tweets 10 min read
🧵1/There is a large, multilingual astroturfing effort around #Cop28 on Twitter right now involving at least 100 fake accounts. The accounts in question are promoting UAE foreign policy, bashing UAE's enemies, and burnishing the UAE's environmental record #deception #greenwashing Image 2/ Many use stolen photos - either stock photos or those found on the web. They have fully fleshed out bios, including location (usually somewhere in the UAE). Another common tactic is to tag real accounts like @amnesty in the bio to give an air of credibility and plausibility. ImageImageImageImage