Every year, it's debated whether kink belongs at Pride. An investigation from
@whoisernie
found that rightwing Telegram channels use this debate to promote hateful anti-LGBTQ narratives.
A Logically investigation has identified the man behind “GhostEzra,” responsible for running the largest QAnon channel on Telegram and spreading increasingly extreme antisemitic propaganda.
A Logically investigation has found evidence of a Twitter botnet promoting a gender critical hashtag on the day that an amendment about transgender prisoners was discussed in the U.K. Parliament.
From
@RachelMullerH
and
@TheOndrakGuy
.
Thread/
Exclusive: A Logically investigation reveals that a key QAnon figure is an information technology specialist from New Jersey who has held prominent positions at both Credit Suisse and Citigroup. More from
@theondrakguy
and
@nickbackovic
:
Chat logs obtained by Logically can reveal that HART, a UK group of lockdown-skeptic activists and health professionals, has coordinated efforts to spread misinformation and lobby MPs, aiming to “wrestle control back from SAGE.”
"I found myself marching down to the Capitol around 12:45 pm on January 6, ten feet from the QAnon Shaman — without a gas mask."
@noturtlesoup17
spent a year undercover documenting QAnon, MAGA, and fascist subcultures. This is what she saw on Jan 6.
A violent terrorist act creates questions that manifestos provide ready answers to, argues propaganda and extremism researcher Emmi Conley. But that doesn't mean those answers are honest — it just means a terrorist wanted you to think they were.
Disclose TV has amassed a huge following as a news aggregator - but they began as a conspiracy forum, and now push anti-vax narratives and platform hate speech on their official chat groups.
@W_F_Thomas
reports.
Monday's conversation about the bill was not driven primarily by gender critical influencers, but instead by "name+number" accounts who produced almost no original content, and rapidly retweeted each other.
Logically investigators have uncovered ties between a QAnon publisher whose sole author called for Pence’s arrest on Jan 6th, and Robert Cornero, a former screenwriter from New Jersey. More from
@nickbackovic
:
Today we can reveal that the man behind the account is in fact Robert Randall Smart of Boca Raton, Florida. An image of a local gas station posted to Smart’s Telegram channel, as well as some other geographical clues, allowed us to narrow down his location to an ~8 mile radius.
A Logically Investigation has found that a national anti-vaccine campaign targeting schoolchildren is being coordinated by parents, including a mum from Leeds. The group claims to have already distributed anti-vaccine material in schools.
As part of our work countering harmful misinformation, Logically researches those who play an outsized role in spreading it. By identifying those leveraging anonymity to supercharge misinformation and hate speech, we hope to restore the accountability that bad actors evade.
A cluster of QAnon-linked cryptocurrency channels on Telegram are promoting fraudulent tokens that have lost followers over $2 million, Logically has found.
Investigation from
@whoisernie
,
@nickbackovic
, and
@toridoki
.
To understand more how the research about transgender prisoners has been misrepresented, and for more about our network analysis, read the full investigation here:
GhostEzra has over 330k subscribers on Telegram, and has attracted reporting in Newsweek, the Daily Dot and VICE, among others. He is arguably responsible for radicalizing thousands of Trump supporters towards more extreme beliefs.
The discussion on Twitter and elsewhere has been rife with misinformation about transgender prisoners, with many suggesting that based on self-ID alone, trans prisoners would be able to decide whether they can be housed in men's or women's facilities. This is false.
A Logically Investigation reveals the consolidation of high-level QAnon communications on the hosting company VanwaTech. The company is also hosting phishing scams targeting several UK companies.
A thread about Patreon and QAnon: Despite releasing a statement promising to tackle the problem of creators using Patreon to monetise disinformation, the subscription website is still allowing QAnon conspiracy theories to spread on its platform.
Logically took daily snapshots of the Twitter conversation organized around the hashtag from January 10-15. While a spike of activity on Monday, Jan 10 would be expected, the shape and activity of that network reveals evidence of coordinated inauthentic behavior.
Images of the network throughout the week show not just a substantial drop in activity, but also higher diversity in the conversation. Dissenting voices emerge. The "name+number" accounts that drove Monday's conversation have disappeared from the network.
A data pull shows that subscribers to GhostEzra’s channel have begun to fall away precipitously following our investigation into his identity. The total had previously been rising steadily.
A Logically investigation has identified the man behind “GhostEzra,” responsible for running the largest QAnon channel on Telegram and spreading increasingly extreme antisemitic propaganda.
On January 10, an amendment to the Police, Crimes, Sentencing, and Court bill, about where transgender prisoners should be housed, was discussed in the House of Lords. Supporters of this amendment used the hashtag KeepPrisonsSingleSex.
Some have speculated that the figure behind the account was former Trump White House official Ezra Cohen-Watnick, prompting Cohen-Watnick’s lawyer to issue an explicit denial that this was the case.
There is a
#GhostEzra
account on
#Telegram
. The usual conspiracy laden Q'Anon garbage.
This is NOT my client
@EzraACohen
. It is an impersonator & we have asked that the account be removed.
Wake up already people. Stop believing everything.
BREAKING: Logically has uncovered two new domains, Bidenemail(dot)com and Bidenemails(dot)com, registered on a VanwaTech IP shielding QAnon aggregators and phishing sites following VanwaTech's move to Google from their previous server.
Carl Kinsella joked that he wanted to run a disinfo campaign to make Dublin's Luas transit system free. Irish Twitter gleefully obliged.
@multiplebears
interviews
@TVsCarlKinsella
about his accidental success.
Much like the audio-only social app Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces has been criticized for platforming hate speech and misinformation.
@W_F_Thomas
explains why it's harder to moderate audio, and how extremists are taking advantage of the new feature.
The group launders “polished” versions of pandemic conspiracy narratives to MPs, journalists and the public, relying on misrepresentations of official statistics or science, while concealing the origins and coordination of these narratives to make them appear organic.
Some of the newer QAnon groups and pages are also attempting to circumvent the Facebook ban by simply adding a space between “Q” and “Anon.” So far they’ve managed to avoid detection.
How did the messaging app Telegram become one of the most popular social networks for conspiracy theories and extremism?
@W_F_Thomas
compares it to the idea of the "cultic milieu," a place where people go to find beliefs rejected by mainstream society.
Covid skeptics have a science problem.
@whoisernie
interviews two scientists popular in the anti-vax community: Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Michael Yeadon.
Despite India’s neutrality in the Russia Ukraine war, Indian media outlets have spread Russian-backed falsehoods about Indian students stranded in Ukraine.
1)/ A Logically investigation can reveal that the popular Russian "fact-checking" website and Telegram account "War on Fakes" has been attributed to a presenter on Russia's biggest propaganda show: Solovyov Live.
#waronfakes
#russiandisinformation
#misinformation
#Telegram
The lengthy Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial has emboldened misogyny online, spread misinformation, and pushed back against the
#MeToo
era.
@RuchoSharma
reports.
A Logically investigation can reveal that the influential QAnon account qthewakeup was created by JJ Sicotte, a Kentucky-based filmmaker who has worked with Jordan Sather.
Are you confused about mRNA, spike proteins, or the therapeutic power of the furry fandom?
@sailorrooscout
— the furry microbiologist who debunks mRNA myths — is here to explain.
👉
Last Monday, the first-ever
#NHS
clinic for
#gambling
-addicted children opened in
#London
—with the NHS chief condemning how little the industry spends on helping addicts compared to its marketing budget.
In collaboration with
@VICE
, Logically investigators reveal that a California woman operates OpenVAERS, a website that misrepresents federal data to promote an antivax agenda.
HART members have leading roles at supposedly independent activist and political groups known for spreading COVID misinformation, such as the UK Medical Freedom Alliance, UsForThem, lockdownsceptics, and Liberal Spring.
Here, we compiled a list of the main narratives about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that have emerged from our fact checking work. Some are narratives seeded by Russian propaganda, and some have emerged from the conspiratorial information ecosystem.
A Logically investigation reveals that a wave of global anti-vax and anti-lockdown rallies were coordinated by a group in Germany: Freie Bürger Kassel.
Salterrae Publishing’s business address is the family home of Robert Cornero Jr., the screenwriter, and his father Robert Cornero Sr., who is a VP of Monmouth University. Neither responded to requests for comment.
They rejected the success of lockdowns. One member went as far as to say that “lockdowns are twice as bad as they are good.” We debunked this statement to show that lockdowns saved more than 3.2 million lives in Europe.
A Logically investigation can reveal the actors behind The Daily Expose, a medical misinformation site that frames COVID-denialist, anti-vaxxer, and Great Reset myths as breaking news.
Today Logically announces that Brian Murphy, Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, will join the team as Vice President of Strategic Operations to expand our counter disinformation work in the US.
A thread of interesting developments following Logically's revelation that New Jersey resident and financial infosec analyst Jason Gelinas operates vital Q infrastructure:
In the chat records, Logically found several baseless and misleading claims. We debunked a false statement that the “mRNA vaccines are not vaccines” made by Anna De Buisseret, a self-proclaimed lawyer who is not licensed to practice.
A Logically investigation from
@JordanWildon
and
@whoisernie
looked into one of the largest COVID-19 conspiracy group on Telegram and found that nearly 1 in every 200 posts contained overt antisemitism.
ICYMI: An exclusive investigation by Logically has revealed that online infrastructure vital to the QAnon movement is operated by Jason Gelinas, an information security expert from New Jersey with ties to Credit Suisse and Citigroup.
A Netflix show about a creepy hotel accidental sheds light on the problem of amateur internet detectives and what happens when investigations turn into conspiracy theories.
@DevikaKhandelw8
investigates.
Though it started as a U.S. anti-vaccine trucker protest, the People's Convoy now mixes QAnon tropes with far-right misinformation. Researcher Sara Aniano (
@coolfacejane
), who's tracked the protest online since it began, explains how it got there.
To prioritize optics, some members have non-public facing roles. These include the homeopath Anna Rayner, who claims to be able to cure autism, former Pfizer scientist Mike Yeadon, activist and Keir Starmer backer Narice Bernard, and Baron Benard de Haldevang.
HART has a clearly defined structure and roles for its members. They have been running an organized political influence campaign, with spreadsheets of MPs and their voting records on lockdowns shared in the chats.
Neon Revolt has close ties to former 8kun admin turned right-wing pundit Ron Watkins. On Jan 6th, before Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, Neon Revolt stoked the flames of dissent, posting a call for the “immediate arrest” of Vice President Mike Pence.
An influential conspiracy theory identified in November 2020 is now being used in an attempt to influence state elections in West Bengal.
@NayakPriyam
reports.
The group has had contact with members of the COVID Recovery Group (CRG), a group of lockdown-skeptic Conservative MPs. Messages also show communications between de Haldevang and Ed Barker, who runs communications for the CRG.
In 2019, Neon Revolt raised over $150,000 with an Indiegogo campaign to write and publish a book called Revolution Q: The Story of QAnon and the 2nd American Revolution, which he then proceeded to sell back to QAnon supporters.
Around the time the UK went into lockdown, a particular episode of the CBeebies show Hey Duggee went missing from iPlayer. Who decides what kids should see on TV, and are they right?
Last month, we published Moore's account of the January 6 capitol riot - we recommend that you read this illuminating profile of her in
@MotherJones
from
@alibreland
, and learn about what it was like to attend QAnon and fascist events undercover.
amanda moore (aka
@noturtlesoup17
) spent the better part of 2021 traveling across the country, going undercover in maga land. documenting everything she could, moore found a bizarre and concerning world. i profiled her about all of it:
A viral campaign asks disillusioned leftists to swallow their pride and vote for Joe Biden. We went looking for its founder, expecting a seasoned political communications professional, and instead found a teenager with his own PAC.
Lots of Q-watchers have speculated about the relationship between VanwaTech owner Nick Lim and 8kun owner Jim Watkins; our investigation is the first to provide solid evidence of such.
Members regularly questioned the effectiveness of the vaccines and firmly opposed vaccinating children. Logically fact-checked a common misbelief by the HART members that “researchers rushed COVID-19 vaccine trials for children”
With the news that our old mate Pete Evans has been banned from Facebook and Instagram for his dubious posting habit, it's a good time to revisit this article from
@LucyXIV
Revolution Q: The Story of QAnon and the 2nd American Revolution is the sole book published by Salterrae Publishing, an FLLC (Foreign Limited Liability Company) from Neptune City, New Jersey.
What does Slenderman have to do with QAnon? For Halloween,
@TheOndrakGuy
explores horror fiction -- creepypasta, conspiracy theories, and how our assumptions about the internet drive disinformation.
Check out this video for a slice of our very own
@JordanWildon
explaining the how global anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests were astroturfed by a small group in Germany:
With tensions in Sydney running high amid rumours of another anti-lockdown protest tomorrow, the New South Wales Police Commissioner today put the city on notice.
#TheProjectTV
Logically in partnership with
@apcoworldwide
are today publishing a new analysis of climate misinformation and the impact COVID-19 has had on these narratives. (Thread)
During an active conflict, social media is flooded with fake images, old unrelated footage, and disinformation and propaganda. Logically's
@whoisernie
put together a social media guide for how to tweet responsibly during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We verified the identity of one of Germany's top QAnon figures. Falk O., aka ResignationAnon, runs several QAnon websites and other vital communication channels for the conspiracy theory. Our German colleagues continued the investigation, which made yesterday's front page.
Der brave Anon: Aus einem Plattenbau in Ostberlin heraus kümmert sich Falk O. darum, dass die Verschwörungserzählungen von QAnon in Deutschland zu den ganz normalen Leuten kommen. Die Geschichte eines Handlangers
#SZPlus
Russell Brand has helped launder a number of conspiracy theories into the discourse.
@_BeFrank
examines his career trajectory from wellness guru to actor to cultural commentator, and explains how he's now helping spread Russian propaganda.
Logically has also found that Lim, who defends hosting neo-Nazi forums by saying that he will host anything 'so long as it's legal', has been hosting decidedly not legal phishing scams targeted at UK banks and telecoms such as
@HSBC_UK
,
@HalifaxBank
,
@giffgaff
, and
@ThreeUK
.
As the Wayfair conspiracy comes back into the news, it's worth remembering that it wasn't always a QAnon narrative - QAnon accounts noticed the similar themes and fully absorbed it. Read
@TheOndrakGuy
's analysis here.
GiveSendGo, a Christian alternative to crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, has hosted numerous campaigns for conspiratorial causes, including Stop the Steal, QAnon media, and legal defenses for InfoWars and Kyle Rittenhouse.
@KDenkWrites
reports.
New research from Logically has found 222,713 unique member accounts in U.K. Telegram COVID conspiracy chats, or 0.32 percent of the country's population. Only about 20 percent of these accounts actively participate in the chat.
Geographical markers like "India variant" can easily identify COVID strains, but we know they inspire racist abuse. Why has WHO's new naming system taken so long to arrive?
A Substack post from Alex Berenson claims that, according to data from the UK's Office of National Statistics, vaccinated people are twice as likely to die as the unvaccinated.
He suggests this is due to "vaccine-induced mortality."
This is false.
As 2021 ends, we reflected on some of the most prominent narratives in the misinformation space and compiled some our the top fact checks of the year. Read our roundup here, or see the individual checks below in the thread:
The chats, called WhipLash347 and Quantum Stellar Initiative (QSI), share weekly curated lists of domains and attached cryptocurrency assets portrayed as independent ventures, despite evidence from IP addresses and blockchain ledger entries that they are linked.
We are pleased to announce the official release of Logically Intelligence, the next technological innovation from Logically in the fight against mis-and disinformation.
👉
Since our previous investigation outing Jason Gelinas, former info sec specialist at CitiGroup, as the operator of QMap, VanwaTech has been adding more and more Q-drop aggregators to its servers, giving the company an enormous amount of control over QAnon communications.
Logically has uncovered a disinformation campaign from Pakistan that aims to stoke religious and political tensions between Assam and Mizoram,
@atandra_ray
and Dhriti Kamdar investigate.
How did celebrity chef Pete Evans go from a popular TV personality promoting “clean eating” to posting neo-Nazi imagery to his 1.5 million followers?
@LucyXIV
has a cautionary tale from Australia.
The first account is Redpill78. Patreon has had ample opportunities to remove this account, which was flagged in an October 2020 investigation by Media Matters.