Read on Twitter
Great LA Times article today from @nabihbulos on the coronavirus disinfo
playing out in the Middle East, with discussion of one of the most interesting things we found in our Twitter takedown report: hashtag laundering! https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-08/coronavirus-becomes-new-front-in-middle-east-battle-for-influence
playing out in the Middle East, with discussion of one of the most interesting things we found in our Twitter takedown report: hashtag laundering! https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-08/coronavirus-becomes-new-front-in-middle-east-battle-for-influence
We found that the hashtag #السراج_خائن_ليبيا (Sarraj the Traitor of Libya) was created by a digital marketing firm linked to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. Even with its short-lived inauthentic amplification, it never went viral. And yet...
Lots of "news" sites wrote articles about the hashtag, making it seem like Libyans hated Turkey so much (the hashtag is a critique of Sarraj's cooperation with Turkey on a maritime agreement) that the hashtag was trending.
Here's my favorite write up - all of the embedded tweets are from now-suspended accounts! https://www.albawabhnews.com/3832019?fbclid=iwar3tb83wkazyevmk8gmav1y4snzylzfvn6-kuqsj-arm0-xpf448htyahqm
Here's another - https://www.mobtada.com/details/892394 most if not all of the screenshots are also from suspended accounts.
And another - this one telling the story in video format! https://nabd.com/s/67177711-6d92cf/%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%BA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AC-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B1
And one more: I hope people investigate these outlets further.
In our report ( https://fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/20200402_blame_it_on_iran_qatar_and_turkey_v2_0.pdf) we focused on hashtag laundering for this one hashtag, but we found hashtag laundering for other suspicious hashtags too that are probably linked to this same network. It seems to be an explicit strategy.
