The Guardian: Russia backs a network to distort the reality of the war in Syria in favor of the Assad regime
The Guardian newspaper said that a network of dozens of conspiracy theorists sent thousands of disinformation tweets to distort the reality of war in Syria after receiving support from a coordinated Russian campaign.
The newspaper published a report explaining that the data collected by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue identified a network of social media accounts, individuals, news site and organizations who published disinformation about the war, with 1.8 million followers who believe every word they read.
The Institute pointed to three aspects promoted by the network of conspiracy theorists firstly, attacking and distorting the work of the White Helmets volunteers secondly, the denial and distortion of information about Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons thirdly, attacking the international organizations who investigate the chemical weapons.
The report of “Syrian Campaign” added through new analysis that the Russian accounts played a key role in creating and disseminating false contents as Moscow embassy in Britain and Syria played a significant role.
The report noted that 47,000 disinformation tweets sent by the core of 28 conspiracy theorists between 2015 and 2021, 19,000 were original posts, which were republished more than 671,000 times.
Vanessa Beeley is among those named in the report as influencers of disinformation, a self-described independent journalist whose theories have turned as evidence for Russia at the UN Security Council.
It is noteworthy that in September 2015 Beeley accused the White Helmets of being in league with Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, claiming that the footage they took during rescue operations of civilians and extricating them from the destroyed buildings is fabricated.
