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Mike Hind Profile picture
Mike Hind
@MikeH_PR
Journalist/comms consultant. British migrant in Normandy. This & that. Making music as 'surprise locale'. https://t.co/eOQQ5J6CbF
Oct 9, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
To be fair, this has always been a problem in relying on the interference by Russia as a reason to invalidate the referendum. This is because evidence of intent is not the same as evidence of effect... As the work of leading researchers in the field @toledobastos & @DanMercea - published here by the Royal Society - suggests
rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/376/21…
Sep 8, 2018 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
A simple thread on the amplification of disinformation on Twitter, using fake accounts & automation. Also known as astroturfing. Read on, if you want to bolster your digital media literacy.
1.
 Meet @/shocker_daily, a low rent 'alternative news' provider. 2. You'll notice I use the / to prevent amplifying @/shocker_daily myself. Like naughty children, bad actors like this thrive on any attention, negative or otherwise. All attention helps them come to prominence in Twitter's promotion algorithm.

Don't help them, right?
Jul 8, 2018 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Met an English guy near me who gave up his decorating business in London 15 years ago. Says it was due to the influx of talented, hard-working, cheap Polish competition. Remain has never had a story to tell to these people, who shouldered the cost of FoM. Incidentally, he appears not to regret this or have a particular chip on his shoulder. Went out of his way to say they were great. It's just how it was.

I have never seen these realities acknowledged except in the most insulting ways by enthusiastic Remain types though.
May 29, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Yaxley-Lennon isn't thick. He's learned what works in the current climate.

He knew he'd be arrested.

You're seeing an operation unfolding.

The 'citizen journalism' thing is a perfect pivot from laddish street activist. There is a smart strategic organisation behind him. The massed ranks of Twitter supporters have been primed by all the usual online 'news' sources.

It reeks of a carefully orchestrated guerrilla operation to probe for weaknesses in our confidence in the law of the land.

Notice how it is being cheer-led from America.
Mar 12, 2018 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Apropos of the sensitivities over Cable’s ‘white nostalgia’ line, some observations on what we all know about types of Brexit voter.

1. We know age was a major determining factor in Leave vs Remain. This cannot be disputed. 2. We know that allegiance to the 2 main parties clearly delineates support or otherwise for Brexit. This cannot be disputed.
Feb 8, 2018 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
1. A bit of digital media literacy help, for those who might be interested.

Calling out @RayFletcher1955 as a fake Brexit account.

Ray pretended tonight to be new to Twitter 2. Also pretends to be ex-Forces. AKA ‘stolen valour’.
Feb 3, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
1. Involved in another of those Twitter ‘debates’ yesterday in which pragmatic anti-Brexit people like Jon tried to explain to ardent Remainers that Brexit itself is not the defining political issue for many downtrodden people 2. This point about the refusal by many to countenance that fact is well made.
Feb 1, 2018 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
1. Meet 'Stan Timley' #FBPE aka (@)SlugmansDaily

'Stan' is quite popular among some people in the anti-Labour 'Remain' contingent. 2. Sure, 'Stan' gives his location as Russia. But it's all about the message. And 'Stan' is clear about his message.
Jan 30, 2018 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
Let's take a look at Steve Baker then. Specifically, whether or not we can trust him.

1. Here @AdamRamsay & Peter @PeterKGeoghegan of @openDemocracy reveal Baker's financial connections with the shadowy Constitutional Research Council.
opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/a… 2. No one seems to know where the CRC gets its money from. But we know that some of it went to Steve Baker. Dark money indeed.

But it gets better. As this clip from the same article shows. Dark interests too, it seems.
Jan 24, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Some thoughts on framing, buses, manipulation & @BBCr4today

1. The bus was not designed to be believed, as such. It was designed to frame Britain’s EU membership as costly.

It was spectacularly successful in this regard. Rebuttal only helped it achieve that purpose 2. Because Leave leaders are smarter than your average Remainer they know that every time you mention the bus people looking on are subliminally reminded of the the apparent cost of the EU to Britain.

It’s a gift that never stops giving
Jan 20, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. Quick explainer on the importance of developing your own digital media literacy skills to navigate information pollution on the social web. Rather than relying on tools to identify bots. 2. Makeadverbsgreatagain is a good example of how the novelty value of a tool can get in the way of developing your personal ability to function most effectively - by thinking
Dec 29, 2017 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
Be aware.

1. There is a new twist in the Brexity disinformation black ops playing out on Twitter.

It appears to be imported from Trumpkin America, where similar efforts to divide the anti-Trump 'resistance' have been quite successful.

It's 'Fake #FBPE' 2. I first became aware of attempts to divide the anti-Brexit movement back in the late summer. It began with an approach by one 'Barry G's Ghost' - a supposed anti-Trump Republican who was now turning his/her/their attention to Brexit Britain.

I played along, to learn more.
Dec 6, 2017 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1. I’m dismayed that some still self-identify with the toxic & redundant ‘Remain’/‘Remainer’ label. There is no option - and there never will be - to ‘remain’. There is so much in a word & if you oppose the abject dumbfuckery of Brexit that one is NOT your friend. It never was. 2. Countless articles - not just from a political perspective but by communication PROFESSIONALS - have been written since the referendum on how USELESS the campaign against quitting the EU was. I wrote this one, a month after the vote
Nov 19, 2017 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Some thoughts. Take them or leave them.

1. The Brexit headbangers have been (as always) more switched on than their opponents ever since the shock of finding themselves on the winning side but in a power vacuum last June. They have quietly re-armed. 2. They have tested the boundaries of normal discourse ('Enemies of the People', 'Brexit Mutineers', death threats for Gina Miller etc) and found nobody with any influence policing them.

That was Theresa May's job but she, of course, focuses on party - not country.
Nov 14, 2017 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Why I don’t particularly celebrate May’s intervention on Russian active measures & all the excitement it’s generating.

1. Russia wages information war online. Really? No shit, Sherlock. Is the Pope a Catholic. Etc... 2. This is not to dismiss the egregious nature of Russian disinformation & the contribution it makes to driving wedges through civil society.

It’s just that THAT story has already been told. It’s old news.
Nov 8, 2017 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
1. Meet Janet. Janet has a handle indistinguishable in format from that of @DavidJoBrexit (formerly DavidJo52951945) 2. Janet42957897 has “like politics” in her bio, just as DavidJo52951945 had “like UKIP” in hers (‘David’ is almost certainly a female btw)
Nov 3, 2017 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1. Quick explainer. What those fake Twitter accounts promoting Brexit are for.

They’re not here to persuade you. They’re here to fool HIM 👇 2. The purpose of pro-Brexit bots & sock puppets is to ‘astroturf’ - create the false impression of social consensus on an issue.
Nov 2, 2017 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
1. There seems to be an obsession with the ‘😱FOREIGN INTERFERENCE😱’ angle. But that kind of misses the point.
Try this thought experiment. 2. Imagine I (still a UK citizen) sabotaged the country in some way, for reasons of ego & personal enrichment.
And I had help from people.
Nov 1, 2017 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1. OK, I’m going to say it.

The foreign dark money for Brexit was American. Mark my words. 2. This is why Banks & Wigmore are so gleeful about the Russia angle.

When the truth emerges they’ll justifiably say everyone was WRONG
Oct 13, 2017 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
Questions & critical thinking for digital media literacy.

This guy says things that chime with you.

Does that put him on your side? Is it a bot? Or is it a professional 'influencer'? Someone paid to promote a viewpoint. Or just an enthusiast for a certain perspective?
Oct 9, 2017 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
1. Dear @Conservatives

Are you using bots? I only ask because I see a lot of fake Twitter accounts supporting you.

Like 'Robert Boid'. 2. 'Robert' is, I guess, just the kind of guy you need to improve the 'kerb appeal' of your failing party. Especially with younger voters.