Thread by @RVAwonk

A big part of the Russian-led disinformation campaign surrounding Syria is psychological warfare designed to condition people not to care when Russian/Syrian forces slaughter civilians. One of the main ways this is accomplished is by portraying those targeted as terrorists. 1/

These are just a few examples from this week. Right now, Assad & Putin are targeting #Idlib, which is home to 3 million people, many of whom fled to the province when they were forcibly displaced from their homes. Now they're all being portrayed as terrorists. 2/

Often, Russian govt officials will claim to have knowledge of some "terrorist" plot in the region being targeted, and they use that as an excuse to destroy entire towns and kill, injure and/or displace the civilians who live there. 3/

(More on that:

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1038534185890336768

)

This week, an account purporting to be an authoritative source of information on Syria posted these tweets (linking to the article pictured below), claiming that "terrorists" had built gallows & were executing people in #Idlib if they opposed reconciliation with Assad. 4/

The purpose was obviously to make it seem as if Assad & Putin are "liberating" #Idlib from savage terrorists. I did a reverse image search on the picture (L) they used as "evidence" to support their claims. It's from 2017 and it shows a public execution in Iran, not Syria (R). 5/

And then there's filth like this out there, quite literally justifying a civilian massacre by making some vague reference to "Islamist terrorists." Don't underestimate how many people buy into this, and how easy it is to dehumanize people using Islamophobic language & slurs. 6/