Donald Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has attracted global ridicule for spewing Kremlin conspiracy theories about Ukraine being a “false country” while lauding war criminal and dictator Vladimir Putin as “super smart and gracious”. In an extensive interview with pro-Russia far right broadcaster Tucker Carlson, Witkoff declared that Putin “was not a bad guy” and […]
Mario Nawfal is a Kremlin mouthpiece and crypto ‘entrepreneur’ whose conspiracy-peddling anti-western content is relentlessly pushed by Elon Musk on X. The black-clad 30 year-old podcaster is best known for hosting his eponymous ‘Roundtable’ show on X. He interviews fellow extremist influencers and anti-democratic political figures from Romania, Russia and the Middle East, broadcasting to […]
In the first edition of the DFRLab’s Narrative Warfare series, released on the first anniversary of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we examined narratives that claimed Ukraine had developed biological weapons that were sponsored by the West. Now, on the third anniversary of the war, we reexamined this narrative and found the conspiracies and false […]
From his early work as a journalist to being founder and editor-in-chief of Russia and Iran-supported "independent media" platform The Grayzone, Blumenthal has developed a dubious reputation for disseminating the disinformation of dictators while pushing antisemitic narratives. Beloved by fellow America-hating anti-Western "anti-imperialists" like the late John Pilger, George Galloway and Oliver Stone, his propagation […]
Since German-born hacker Kim Dotcom fled to New Zealand to avoid extradition for numerous copyright violations by his website Megaupload, he has been spreading conspiracy theories about every subject imaginable while weaving them into an overall plot about Jewish control and “overrepresentation.” Little of this is different from what countless authors, pundits, politicians, and media […]
American conspiracist Candace Owens sees the pernicious influence of satanic Jewish pedophiles on international politics everywhere. Any rumor that casts Judaism, Israel or Zionism in a bad light is eagerly seized upon by her. She believes that the history of the Jewish people is wilfully distorted by the mainstream media and established institutions in the […]
The French Embassy in South Africa has used humour and sarcasm to unmask a propaganda video fake being spread by official Moscow accounts purporting to feature a so-called “French soldier/mercenary” being “captured” in Ukraine by Russian forces. The video had been spread by conspiracist accounts claiming Western/Nato forces are already on the ground in Ukraine […]
A severe storm system moved through the Black Sea this week, impacting occupied Crimea and parts of Ukraine and Russia, leaving millions without heat and power. Amid the storm, pro-Kremlin sources re-circulated an old conspiracy theory suggesting US-based entities were complicit in the storm’s creation. The conspiracy theory accuses the United States of having a technological program that can control the […]
As the war between Israel and Hamas has intensified in Gaza, disinformation and conspiracy theories about the conflict have been increasingly circulating on social media. At least that’s what I found in my analysis of some 12,000 comments posted on Telegram channels in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Not surprisingly, […]
"Look at what they're doing with their own people!" In his address to the nation on February 21, Vladimir Putin accused the West of having made pedophilia "the norm." A wild attack typical of the Kremlin leader, but one which resonated with the most far-out conspiracy circles, such as the QAnon community which spreads disinformation […]
