DISINFO: Bellingcat fuels US race riots, attacks RT over satire
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: RT English ( archived) *
  • Date of publication: June 01, 2020
  • Outlet language(s): English
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia

DISINFO: Bellingcat fuels US race riots, attacks RT over satire

SUMMARY

Bellingcat, the UK-based enablers of Western narratives in Syria and Ukraine now fueling US race riots, selectively translated a satirical post from Russian social media shared by RT’s editor-in-chief to get her “canceled.” On Sunday, Margarita Simonyan shared a Telegram post by Dmitry Steshin, a war correspondent for the newspaper KP, which purported to give “advice” to rioters in the US on how to make their uprising more “successful” along the lines of the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine. Given that the post was entirely in Russian, it was obvious that the real objective of Steshin – and Simonyan – was to comment on the Maidan uprising in Kiev and the ensuing war in Ukraine. Not so, declared the self-proclaimed experts on “open-source” intelligence. Bellingcat selectively translated a handful of sentences from Steshin’s post and accused Simonyan of – what else? – racism.

RESPONSE

Disinformation about the independent investigative journalism site Bellingcat. Bellingcat is an independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists using open source and social media investigation to probe a variety of subjects, including chemical weapon attacks in Syria, Russia's influence operations in Ukraine and elsewhere, the downing of the flight MH17, Salisbury poisoning and others. There is no basis to claims that Bellingcat reporting is in any way fueling protests in the US. The founder of the Bellingcat has exposed RT chief editor's post on social media sharing racial slurs. RT article also falsely identifies the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in 2014 as a coup. See the full debunk here.

Embed

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

    Your opinion matters!

    Data Protection Information *

      Subscribe to the Disinfo Review

      Your weekly update on pro-Kremlin disinformation

      Data Protection Information *

      The Disinformation Review is sent through Mailchimp.com. See Mailchimp’s privacy policy and find out more on how EEAS protects your personal data.