Scrutable

This is crazy: https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/125226 ... 30848?s=21

U.K. government accused of setting up fake social media accounts to give the impression health key workers support it.

headshot wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:32 am

This is crazy: https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/125226 ... 30848?s=21

U.K. government accused of setting up fake social media accounts to give the impression health key workers support it.

Oh goodie, the official DHSC twitter account has now turned up in the comments and, with a complete lack of self-awareness, is accusing the OP of spreading disinformation and undermining the fight against COVID19.

The Tl;DR version being the DHSC has apparently been caught out creating false (and now deleted) twitter accounts using the photos and identities of real medical staff, WITHOUT their permission, to push the following narratives:-

1. We should go for herd immunity
2. The lockdown should end immediately
3. The NHS has loads of PPE
4. Only weirdo sexual-deviant communists oppose the way the government has handled the pandemic.

Is this a Cummings-style Dead Cat strategy?

Astroturfing and gaslighting aplenty.

Well here is another perspective: https://mobile.twitter.com/forwardnotba ... 4928230406

Can I introduce "NHS Susan"



And her twin sister Mia:-



https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2019/12/ ... -increase/

This can't possibly be true?

Some amateur troll factory?

Remember the time CCHQ renamed their Twitter handle “FactCheckUK” and spun anti-Labour news?

Given that NHS staff are being expressly forbidden from talking/social media-ing/anything about Covid-19, which is over and above the blanket thing in most contracts about not saying or writing anything publicly which might reflect on your employment unless it has been cleared by trust corporate affairs, I would be very, very, very suspicious of supposed Twitter accounts of "NHS staff" being all glowing and positive: fakes or useful idiots (I knew a few of those - do anything to ingratiate themselves with the power clique).

But that says nothing about whether this is the government being stupid.

Surely it's some bored troll with too much time and not enough skill?

Or, if you want to be full-on conspiracy theory, this is a deliberate throwaway by masters of propaganda, designed to lure attention for the real and highly sophisticated propaganda program hidden in the shadows.

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:12 am

But that says nothing about whether this is the government being stupid.

Surely it's some bored troll with too much time and not enough skill?

Or, if you want to be full-on conspiracy theory, this is a deliberate throwaway by masters of propaganda, designed to lure attention for the real and highly sophisticated propaganda program hidden in the shadows.

People seem to be confusing “these are dodgy accounts” (agreed) with “these are dodgy accounts set up at the highest levels of gubmint (I’d like to see more evidence please). Many of them seem to be sub Titania McGrath piss take accounts.

Nothing would surprise me though

murmur wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:56 am

Given that NHS staff are being expressly forbidden from talking/social media-ing/anything about Covid-19, which is over and above the blanket thing in most contracts about not saying or writing anything publicly which might reflect on your employment unless it has been cleared by trust corporate affairs, I would be very, very, very suspicious of supposed Twitter accounts of "NHS staff" being all glowing and positive: fakes or useful idiots (I knew a few of those - do anything to ingratiate themselves with the power clique).

A caller on Any Answers either last Saturday or the one before claimed to be a member of nursing staff from a London hospital (didn't want to say which) and was very insistent that there was no shortage of PPE. Unfortunately, as a listener, we have no means of knowing whether a good faith report.

I'd be interested to know what evidence there is that the 'fake nurse' tweets were linked to DHSC.

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:12 am

Or, if you want to be full-on conspiracy theory, this is a deliberate throwaway by masters of propaganda, designed to lure attention for the real and highly sophisticated propaganda program hidden in the shadows.

Hence my “dead cat” suggestion above.

I don’t find this tweet terribly reassuring with regard to the quality of the “journalism”

https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/125254 ... 01571?s=20

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:59 am

This can't possibly be true?

Some amateur troll factory?

Transitioning from "Mia" to "Susan" perhaps. There's bound to be a rational explanation.

But srsly, yes, it looks like trolling. Did I miss it or is there no indication that it's trolling by anyone significant?

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:12 am

But that says nothing about whether this is the government being stupid.

Surely it's some bored troll with too much time and not enough skill?

Or, if you want to be full-on conspiracy theory, this is a deliberate throwaway by masters of propaganda, designed to lure attention for the real and highly sophisticated propaganda program hidden in the shadows.

According to the tweets:

jdpoc wrote:Regarding those 128 fake #NHS Staff accounts posting for 'Herd Mentality' and support of the Govt that were set up by @DHSCgovuk
or their marketing agency ...

Posts were sent using Hootsuite, a mass-posting tool. Account registered to 1 person with 4 assigned contributors.

The one person has been identified.

Despite the @DHSCgovuk
reply to my queries of 'no comment' (and that's all she wrote), that person is a contracted Government employee temporarily assigned to this department.

I offered to provide all data to the @DHSCgovuk
for purposes of internal investigation.

They declined.

I asked to deal directly with their Soc Med and Comms team to work through the data.

They declined.

Our digging continues.

If true, it's beyond "some bored troll" - though it will be very hard to find out if they were acting on official orders or not.

I think this thread on Twitter is a pretty good takedown and a darn sight more forensic than the original claims

https://twitter.com/imbadatlife/status/ ... 56480?s=20

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:29 pm

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:12 am

But that says nothing about whether this is the government being stupid.

Surely it's some bored troll with too much time and not enough skill?

Or, if you want to be full-on conspiracy theory, this is a deliberate throwaway by masters of propaganda, designed to lure attention for the real and highly sophisticated propaganda program hidden in the shadows.

According to the tweets:

jdpoc wrote:Regarding those 128 fake #NHS Staff accounts posting for 'Herd Mentality' and support of the Govt that were set up by @DHSCgovuk
or their marketing agency ...

Posts were sent using Hootsuite, a mass-posting tool. Account registered to 1 person with 4 assigned contributors.

The one person has been identified.

Despite the @DHSCgovuk
reply to my queries of 'no comment' (and that's all she wrote), that person is a contracted Government employee temporarily assigned to this department.

I offered to provide all data to the @DHSCgovuk
for purposes of internal investigation.

They declined.

I asked to deal directly with their Soc Med and Comms team to work through the data.

They declined.

Our digging continues.

If true, it's beyond "some bored troll" - though it will be very hard to find out if they were acting on official orders or not.

I think the digging went on a bit further to supposedly show it was the work of "a marketing agency set up three months ago by three ex @DHSCgovuk staff”.

It doesn't show that it was directed by the government but does beg the question* why 3 former DHSC staffers working for a marketing agency would apparently spend their free time organising (and then deleting) a large number of fake twitter accounts for the sole purpose kite-fly some controversial government policies and push a pro-government line in regards to its handling of the pandemic, rather than, I don't know, using their knowledge of social media to promote the desired messages of their paying customers.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:35 am

Well here is another perspective: https://mobile.twitter.com/forwardnotba ... 4928230406

And another one:

https://mobile.twitter.com/imbadatlife/ ... 6849556480

discovolante wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:57 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:35 am

Well here is another perspective: https://mobile.twitter.com/forwardnotba ... 4928230406

And another one:

https://mobile.twitter.com/imbadatlife/ ... 6849556480

Lol. That’s the one I intended to post. I screwed up the link. Cheers Disco

Oh God

This is getting desperate

https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/125258 ... 18624?s=20

Full Fact totally pwn the guy. Not his first offence apparently
https://twitter.com/fullfact/status/125 ... 75905?s=21

"mass-posting tool". Hootsuite is a scheduler. I've used it, amongst others.

Stephanie wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:32 am

"mass-posting tool". Hootsuite is a scheduler. I've used it, amongst others.

I know you post a lot, Stephanie, but I wouldn't call you a tool.

Stranger Mouse wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:22 pm

Full Fact totally pwn the guy. Not his first offence apparently
https://twitter.com/fullfact/status/125 ... 75905?s=21

He told us that currently that data was “not in a presentable form as yet”, and that it was “way too data-heavy for non-geeks”, but that he would keep us updated.

Yea right. Believable for analysis of 128 000 accounts, not for 128.