Ben Nimmo Profile picture
Jul 22, 2018 10 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Reports of the #WhiteHelmets being evacuated from Syria.

These are the rescuers who've been the target of one of the most concerted smear and trolling campaigns I know.

Not primarily as rescuers, but as witnesses to potential war crimes.

bbc.co.uk/news/world-mid…
The White Helmets' basic job is to rescue people from bomb sites in Syria.

They film their rescues.

Sometimes, when verified, those films provide evidence of potential war crimes, such as here (h/t @bellingcat).

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016…
Repeatedly, the White Helmets have been witnesses to what's happening on the ground.

Here, they provided evidence of incendiaries being used in Idlib. The images of spent munitions matched images that RT broadcast, then deleted, then put up again.

bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016…
It's not just footage. This is the UN report which found that the Assad regime dropped sarin on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017.

White Helmets (SCD, Syrian Civil Defence) provided samples, corroborated by UN witness checks.

Source: undocs.org/S/2017/567
The more they've reported, and the more the Russian military has been active in Syria, the more they've been targeted by Kremlin outlets.

Big spike during the siege of Aleppo. Another after Khan Sheikhoun.

Coincidence?
This was the first Sputnik piece on them, in August 2015.

Note the reference to "propaganda" already. It's their evidence that was the problem.

And the source? A 9/11 truther site.
Kremlin outlets on the White Helmets during the siege of Aleppo.

Note the insistence on "propaganda" again.

It's not what they did that worried the Kremlin and Assad regimes, it's what they filmed.
Here are Kremlin reactions to the Khan Sheikhoun attack and report.

Remember, the UN/OPCW investigation found the Assad regime responsible.

Reads awfully like an attempt to dismiss the witness.
This comment sums up the concern.

"All kinds of fake stories to prove war crimes."

The source? Sergei Lavrov.

mid.ru/en/press_servi…
The White Helmets reported from the ground.

When verified, their evidence pointed to possible war crimes.

They've been bombed, smeared and trolled as a result.

The witnesses have been targeted, but the evidence remains. /

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More from @benimmo

Oct 9, 2018
Thread: just a snapshot of the increasing polarisation of the US Twittersphere ahead of the midterms.

Polarised communities proved to be an easy target for influence operations in 2014-18.

medium.com/dfrlab/electio…
Scanned three sets of paired election-related hashtags: #VoteRed / #VoteBlue, #RedWave2018 / #BlueWave2018, #FlipItRed / #FlipItBlue.

First scan covered 48 hours. Overall, pro-Democratic hashtags got significantly higher traffic (79k posts compared with 47k posts).
On this scan, users of pro-Democratic hashtags were roughly double the number of users on pro-Republican hashtags (40k users compared with 21k users).
Read 6 tweets
Oct 5, 2018
I mentioned the Kremlin's standard response technique of dismiss, distort, distract, dismay.

Quite a few of the elements are here, in the latest Russian MFA responses to the OPCW / GRU hacking story.

mid.ru/en/foreign_pol…
Dismiss: insult the critics. Plenty of that in the statement.

"Anti-Russian spy mania."
"Strong paranoia." (Not just "paranoia", you'll note.)
"Absurd anti-Russian attacks."
Interestingly, they didn't use the word "Russophobia" in this one, though it's been the bulwark of Kremlin defences since 2014.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 4, 2018
#OPCW hacking case: we've already had the Russian government trying to dismiss the latest UK / NL claims about the #GRU. That's tactic number 1.

Up next, expect attempts to distort, distract and dismay.
Distort. We saw this with the Skripal suspects, portrayed as "civilians" and snow-shy tourists.

Expect attempts to say that the photos were faked, the evidence was made up, and / or the men were harmless visitors on a diplomatic visit to fix the Embassy wifi.
Distract. Accuse the accusers.

Expect the arguments, "The West hacks people too," or "You killed civilians in Libya / Afghanistan / Vietnam / insert name here."

Which doesn't justify use of CW on civilians, or attempts to cover it up.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 13, 2018
#TrollTracker: interesting troll spike from the pro-Kremlin / pro-Assad gang against @janinedigi.

Image: @Sysomos scan of traffic over the past 7 days.
For those who don't know @janinedigi, here's a list of her awards as a war correspondent.

She reported from places including Grozny, Kosovo, Palestine, Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: janinedigiovanni.com/awards-and-rec…
Here's the tweet which triggered the storm: a post saying that RT and Sputnik are not journalists.

That's a hell of a call for a genuine award-winning journalist to make, so let's look at evidence.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 6, 2018
Rare decision from @Ofcom here, finding broadcaster Ausaf UK no longer "fit and proper" to hold a licence.

Note that RT is also under scrutiny against the "fit and proper" criteria, but that Ofcom sets a high bar for these decisions.

ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…
Particularly striking: Ausaf TV had its licence revoked before it started broadcasting, based on the content of the associated newspaper.

Including glorification of violent jihad and endorsement of listed terrorists.
Rather unwisely, the MD of the TV station initially denied that he was linked to the newspaper, then confirmed that he was.

Making false claims to the regulator is seldom a way to win confidence.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 6, 2018
Looks like someone tried to get hashtag SkripalHoax to trend overnight.

822 mentions. It really didn't do very well.
Let's look at some of the arguments.

Probably the most popular in the pro-Kremlin crowd was the claim that the Met Police photos of the arrival in Gatwick had the same timestamp, and therefore must have been photoshopped.
... unless there's more than one arrival channel at Gatwick, and they were walking together.

(h/t @bleidl for the photo)
Read 10 tweets

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