person:marc owen jones

Are Twitter Bots on Yemen and Bahrain Hashtags linked to News Broadcaster Saudi 24? | Marc Owen Jones
▻https://marcowenjones.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/are-twitter-bots-on-yemen-and-bahrain-hashtags-linked-to-ne

This morning, some fellow Tweeps alerted me to the use of similar bots on the #Yemen hashtag, so I did some preliminary tests. Sure enough, the same bots on the #Bahrain hashtag are using the Yemen hashtag to promote the idea of Iranian influence in Yemen, a common trope in Gulf politics. The accounts are indeed the same, and some have changed from Tweeting about Bahrain to tweeting about Yemen. Many still continue to tweet on the #Bahrain hashtag. The most common Tweets on the Yemen hashtag are;

العوين:مجئ الخوميني هو بداية الشر و اشعال الحروب في المنطقة ▻https://t.co/wkYWbGT3eG … #الشيخ_عيسي_قاسم #ايران #Iran #حزب_الله #yemen #Iraq

(translation: The appearance of Khomeini was the beginning of evil and the spread of wars in the region #Shaykh_Isa_Qasim, #Hezbollah, #Yemen, #Iraq, #Iran

توجيهات خادم الحرمين بايصال رسالة المملكة للعالم كله ومنها برنامج الإمامة في الخارج ▻https://t.co/QZif2VH3PP … #ايران #Iran #حزب_الله #yemen (The custodian of the holy mosques sends a message to the whole world….)

Of the 11,541 Tweets pulled from the Twitter API over an approximately 48 hour period, around 2,493 appear to be from bot accounts. In the sample, there were approximately 1172 individual bot accounts engaged in polluting the Yemen hashtag with the above tweets. You can see the spreadsheet data here. I have used the same methodology as in previous posts, but have not got into it here (happy to answer questions though)

The role of Saudi24?
What is interesting about virtually all the videos analysed on the #Bahrain and Yemen hashtag is that they contain links almost exclusively to the YouTube channel Saudi 24. Saudi 24 is a satellite channel that I am still trying to find more information on. Their Twitter account was set up in July 2012, before the automated Twitter activated seemed to begin. Their live link can be found here. Their website can be found here. The email address given on their Twitter bio is Info@saudi24.tv. They joined YouTube in January 2015, after many of the bot account had been created (On Youtube they have 12,501 subscribers and over 3,743,929 views ). This appears to be the Twitter account of the main presenter, Mohammad Rashid. Their rhetoric seems loosely aligned with state rhetoric. They are anti Islamic State, but antagonistic towards Iran, and sectarian towards the Shia. At the moment the link is speculative, but it does seem unusual that the bots should almost exclusively choose news clips from Saudi 24, when there are plenty to choose from that broadcast a particularly anti-Shia, anti-Iran, sectarian agenda.

The Automation of Sectarianism: Are Twitter Bots Spreading Sectarianism in the Gulf? | Marc Owen Jones
▻https://marcowenjones.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/the-automation-of-sectarianism

The relevant thing is that hundreds of what seem to be automated Twitter accounts are repeating propaganda that conflates acts of violence, terrorism, and unrest, with both Arab Shia and Iran. This strongly suggests that institutions, people, or agencies, with significant resources, are deliberately creating divisive, anti-Shia sectarian propaganda and disseminating it in a robotic, but voluminous fashion. The problems here are numerous, yet such accounts can not only contribute to sectarianism (hard to infer causal relations from this), but create the impression that polices, such as the denationalisation of Isa Qasim, have widespread popular support.

It is also interesting to note that among the many hashtags used by these accounts are Da’ish, the derogatory term used to describe the Islamic State. It could be that they wish to tap into that wider audience, in the hope that the message gets out – entirely possible given the generous hashtagging the accounts engage in. While the notion of bot accounts is probably not news to anyone, the evidence here hopefully highlights that much online sectarian discourse is perhaps inflated by those groups or individuals with specific ideological agendas, and the means to do so. Of course we know PR and reputation management companies offer such services, yet their work is often done secretively and behind close doors. Would be interesting to find out who is behind this.

Bahrain on Video : Police Interrogation of Youth Making False Confession Goes Viral - IBTimes UK
▻http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/478263/20130613/bahrain-video-police-youth-ali-marhoon-torture.htm

Bahrain on Video: Police Interrogation of Youth Making False Confession Goes Viral

[...]
The footage, uploaded by Bahrain’s security officer Abdulrahman Al Mannai, depicts the interrogation on a young man called Hussain Jamil Jaffar Ali Marhoon, from Hamad Town.

Repris par la presse

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BMifqbHCEAAs9uc.jpg:large

History of impunity in Bahrain. Excellent piece by Marc Owen Jones

“The ruling elite in Bahrain has always found a way to engineer means of escaping accountability”

April 4, 2013
▻http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/opinion/marc-owen-jones-bahrains-history-of-political-injustice_14064