Arabi Facts Hub (AFH)’s Post

The "Portal Kombat" website network, which spreads pro-Russian disinformation and propaganda, was recently activated in Greece as well. In February, the Viginum agency, which operates under the French Secretariat-General for National Defence and Security (SGDSN), published a report in which it said it had identified Russia as preparing a large-scale disinformation campaign in Europe. Viginum had identified a network of at least 193 sites spreading Russian propaganda in France, Germany, Poland, and several other countries. Greece is one of the latest, targeted with the use of pravda-gr . com (https://archive.is/XpEOe). It was registered on the 20th of March and started publishing on the 22nd. It collaborates with specific social media accounts, mainly on Telegram, to promote disinformation. It also shares stories from Greek far-left and far-right media. It's a classic case of foreign information manipulations and interference (FIMI) campaigns because it's trying to manipulate the Greek-speaking public opinion. It has come as no surprise to us, because we were already monitoring and fact-checking the abovementioned accounts and websites. Lutz Güllner I'm sure you will agree that EU and local authorities must act now to stop their actions or at least curb their influence.

🚨 Caught in the Act: Presidential Guard Confiscates Journalist Sheila Wilson's Phone Amid Protest Coverage 🚔 This image captures the exact moment when a member of the Presidential Guard confiscates the phone of journalist Sheila Wilson, who was courageously reporting on protests against electoral fraud. From 12:00 to 12:30, streets were paralyzed with traffic and horns blaring in a powerful act of civil resistance, honoring the over 60 lives lost in the fight for electoral justice and transparency. Sheila Wilson was documenting this moment when her phone was forcibly taken, a clear attempt to silence the voices exposing the harsh reality of repression in Mozambique. This incident is not just an attack on one journalist; it is an attack on press freedom, democratic rights, and the courage of those standing up for justice in the face of adversity. We call on all national and international actors to: 🔹 Condemn these actions unequivocally. 🔹 Stand in solidarity with journalists and human rights defenders risking their safety to amplify the truth. 🔹 Demand accountability for these violations and support the fight for democracy in Mozambique. The time to act is now. Let’s amplify the voices being silenced. ✊🕊️ #Mozambique #HumanRights #PressFreedom #ElectoralJustice #StandForDemocracy

https://lnkd.in/epYA8nrh While Hasan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, repeats in Beirut the threats of his puppet-masters in Tehran, who have described the massive destruction they are prepared to visit on the “Zionist entity,” many Lebanese, horrified at what they see as a march toward war with Israel, have been filling social media with both their anguished calls for peace, and with denunciations of Hezbollah for dragging the country into a war that almost all Lebanese, save for the members of Hezbollah, do not want, for they remember what happened to the country in the 2006 Lebanon War. More on their on-line campaign to stop Nasrallah in his dangerous tracks can be found here: “‘Lebanon doesn’t want war’: Online campaign targets Hezbollah,” by Ohad Merlin, Jerusalem Post, June 23, 2024: As Israel and Hezbollah exchange deadly blows at the border and threats of an imminent war are sounded daily, some activists and media personalities in Lebanon who oppose the Iranian-backed terrorists of Hezbollah have come out with a series of videos and online campaigns in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to turn public opinion in the Land of Cedars against the prospects of war with Israel. One salient example of these efforts is the hashtag “Lebanon doesn’t want war,” which had almost 40,000 appearances over the last month alone, garnering roughly 100,000 engagements and a potential reach of almost 30 million users. The hashtag was also accompanied by a series of infographics and other hashtags, such as “Disarming Hezbollah is vital” and “Resolution 1701,” [the UN Resolution which required Hezbollah to withdraw its forces well north of the Litani River] which were shared by a wide array of Lebanese activists on social media. Some commentators directly addressed Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nancy Nessrine Lakiss, a Lebanese journalist from Elsharq press, posted a picture showing a white dove with the slogan “We shout for peace, not for war,” adding: “Hezbollah published a video from its military media provoking Israel, so Israel decided to threaten us with bombing the airport. Please have mercy on us! How can you bear this much blood and death? Who will build Lebanon again? And if it is built, who will live in the houses after all this destruction and killing?” In another viral post, Lakiss turned directly to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, demanding: “Mr. Nasrallah, you negotiate for the rights of the Palestinians, but have you forgotten their actions during our civil war, such as violating our women? [a reference to rapes of Christian women by Palestinian women during the 1975-1990 civil war between Christians and Muslims]. Do you value the blood of the Lebanese in your decisions regarding the war? Justice must begin with our country first!

How today’s news is playing out on social media: Bluesky Assad Flees Damascus as Rebels Capture the Capital—Live Updates Threads Assad Considering Reforms Amid Growing November Protests—Could This Be Syria’s Turning Point? Also, what’s everyone’s favourite Thanksgiving dish? X Elon Would Never Flee says Russell Brand in Joe Rogan interview. Jokes aside, Bluesky is becoming the platform where breaking news is reported and shared—as evidenced by live updates from both media outlets and independent journalists on the ground in Syria. Meta’s decision to shun news—to avoid the regulatory and reputational headaches as well as to avoid paying media owners—and Threads’ prioritisation of recommendations over real-time, makes following news on the platform nearly impossible. As for X, the less said the better. The news from Syria isn’t just a test of the world’s attention; it’s a glimpse into the platforms vying to shape journalism’s future.

Smear campaigns are a common disinformation tactic, using false or exaggerated claims to damage the reputation of political opponents rather than focusing on policies. These attacks distract voters from real issues and create division. In our ‘Verify First, Share with Caution’ campaign, we unpack the dangers of smear campaigns and how they undermine healthy political discourse. #VerifyFirst #ShareWithCaution #StopDisinformation Canadian Commission for UNESCO | Commission canadienne pour l'UNESCO, Media Foundation for West Africa(MFWA), Penplusbytes, Dubawa, Safe Media Hub

We are perfectly logical beings when we are creating products for the enjoyment of our customers. How can we be neither logical nor humane when it comes to people’s lives? The international court of justice found it plausible that Israel is committing gen.cide in Gaza, but orders no halt to hostilities. Instead, the ICJ orders Israel to take measures and report back in a month. The question is: when journalists’ access is restricted, when people refrain from using their devices to record lest they get sniped, when the perpetrator is also the examiner, does the ICJ order amount to carte blanche to carry on, just more carefully, more quietly? Maybe I’ll know the answers to these questions in a month. Or maybe history will repeat itself and 8000 more Gazans will be killed by then. Incidents like the one below are rarely recorded. But the eye witness accounts are many and are horrific.

#Russia deliberately floods newsrooms with #fake content to overload fact-checkers The #Kremlin's goal is to amplify certain fake narratives by forcing journalists to publish and disseminate their rebuttals. This is reported by #Euronews with reference to research by #Finnish experts: Verification requests usually refer to Ukraine, France and Germany and are sent in the form of emails and mentions on social networks. The operation currently targets more than 800 news organizations in Europe and beyond, to which around 2,400 tweets and more than 200 emails have been sent. This technique is based on a simple principle: any advertising is good advertising. Experts note that Telegram also played a significant role , as most of the links sent to journalists redirected them to the messenger. Such activity works both for internal propaganda of the Russian Federation and for foreign interference and manipulation of information.

🔍 In our latest research, we delved into the dynamic ecosystem of anonymous Telegram channels, pushing false information about Moldovan political affairs and the nation’s pro-European government. Our findings shed light on how these channels are leveraged to shape hostile narratives, sow discord, and undermine trust in Moldovan democratic institutions. https://lnkd.in/dEk65h-K

For the last four weeks, we witnessed an enormous disinformation campaign spreading russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda in the US. It was perfectly timed with the proceeding of the government help package for Ukraine, and affected republican Trump party politicians and `journalists`. As an result, all Trump party members voted against the bill, Trump’s pro-russian orientation gained the support of the right-wing public opinion, and radicalized anti-Ukrainian narrative among his supporters. We have faced precisely the same mechanism in the 2016 elections, so maybe a deeper insight into the actors that constantly operate on US soil will shed some light on contemporary events. Although the analyses of the role of disinformation processes during the 2016 presidential campaign differ in their conclusions, they agree on one thing. The main actors involved in disinforming the American public were the infamous russian Internet Research Agency and Cambridge Analitica, which has a short but rich history of disinformation activities from Trinidad and Tobago, through Ukraine, to the USA. 🪖The diagnosis of the sowers was made correctly, but in many cases, it came close to trivializing the IRA as a 'troll farm'. It is worth emphasizing that the IRA, like other russian digital troops that interfered in the American elections, is a highly qualified unit affiliated with the GRU, specializing in destabilizing the political situation using disinformation activities. Calling it a "troll farm" is an oversimplification. Not only does it not reflect the professionalism of the IRA's operations, but it reduces the russian strategy to "trolling" conducted by one seoarated agency. This is contradicted by the way the IRA operated, but also how other similar entities operate. An example is military cyber unit 74455, connected with the Guccifer 2.0 program, with which the National Democratic Committee servers were attacked, and the stolen data known as DCLeaks was used to weaken Clinton's position. 🟠The image of the sowers is completed by Trump's staff, whose activities in spreading disinformation were orchestrated with the russians and Cambridge Analitica in a way that Richard Wagner would be ashamed of when composing Valkyrie. What was this orchestration? Disinformation activities during the 2016 presidential campaign can be classified as part of several dominant effects of communication influence. I’ll picture it in the next entry. Stay tuned 🇺🇸

The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times. The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People landed in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, the records suggest that the authorities followed people to determine if they were carrying on romantic relationships outside marriage. Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials watch them closely. But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians. The documents show that Hamas leaders, despite claiming to represent the people of Gaza, would not tolerate even a whiff of dissent. Security officials trailed journalists and people they suspected of immoral behavior. Agents got criticism removed from social media and discussed ways to defame political adversaries. Political protests were viewed as threats to be undermined. https://lnkd.in/evyx2C-2 Norman Spector @nspector4