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The researchers dubbed them “American Goldilocks” – the bright-eyed environmentalists who tweeted enthusiastically in support of the UAE and its handling of the upcoming COP28 climate summit. only problem? They are not real.
Ben, Brianna, Emma, ​​Caitlin and Chloe expressed refreshing optimism about the role of the Gulf states and its COP28 chairman, oil executive Sultan Al Jaber, in promoting climate action.
Their sexy avatars look like drawings from a fantasy novel – apparently created using an artificial intelligence image generator. Their names, locations and environmental credentials don’t appear together anywhere else online.
Analysts consulted by AFP believed these and dozens of other Twitter accounts were involved in a coordinated campaign and labeled the tactic a form of “astroturfing” – a fake grassroots movement to influence public opinion.
For example, the “Goldilocks” account was created within a few hours in August 2022, according to a digital analysis by the NGO coalition Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD).
It said the accounts posted a series of similar messages almost simultaneously, including a retweet of a post from the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington.
Summit organizers did not respond to AFP’s request for comment. The Guardian quoted an unnamed spokesperson as saying that the fake accounts were “generated by external actors unrelated to COP28 in an apparent attempt to discredit COP28 and the climate process.”
U.S. and EU lawmakers and activists have called for Jaber to step down. They say his position as head of the state oil company ADNOC represents a conflict of interest for someone who moderates discussions on ending global warming carbon emissions.
Jaber has the backing of all parties in the COP, including US climate envoy John Kerry. He called for the rapid development of renewable energy, acknowledging last week that “a gradual reduction in fossil fuels is inevitable”.
– ‘Green Wash’ –
The Twitter campaign sought to paint Jaber as someone who is committed and capable of solving the climate crisis.
When Romain Iualalen, an activist from Oil Change International, tweeted about the risk that the UAE-hosted COP28 could “slow down the transition from fossil fuels,” he received responses from a number of accounts identified by researchers as fake.
Dubai-based “lawyer” Caitlin hailed Jaber’s leadership at COP28 as a “game changer”, while “ecologist” Emma praised his “passion for climate action”.
When the Center for Climate Reporting (CCR) said last month that Jaber’s team had “greenwashed” Wikipedia by editing pages to downplay his role as head of ADNOC, 15 pro-UAE accounts responded similarly.
They all claimed to be young non-Emiratis interested in climate change and human rights, with many expressing their support for Jaber, the CCR’s director, Lawrence Carter, told AFP.
One account the researchers flagged was identifiable as fake from its profile picture: It was watermarked with the address of an online face generator. Reverse image searches revealed photos on other accounts were taken from stock image sites.
Diogo Pacheco, a computer scientist at the University of Exeter, told AFP after examining some of the accounts that appeared to be “inauthentic”, noting that some changed after being flagged their screen names or biographies.
“It is very unusual for real users to create and use these fake profile pictures or stock photos,” said Katharina Kleinen von Koenigsloew, professor of communication sciences at the University of Hamburg.
CAAD detailed a “concerted effort” involving at least 28 accounts promoting the Gulf state in a “suspicious tweeting pattern”.
– ‘Extensive disinformation’ –
Digital disinformation analyst Mark Owen-Jones shared with AFP a list of 93 accounts he identified as involved in the “artificial turf” campaign, some of which were created more than two years ago.
They were mainly focused on boosting the UAE’s COP28 account, while expanding other official accounts and flagging several of its foreign embassies, he said.
“Often in these businesses, it’s a PR firm” pushing the message, said Jones, from Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, a rival of the UAE.
“But it’s really hard to find hard evidence,” he said.
Before billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the platform announced it had removed accounts linked to “state-sponsored messaging operations” in Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
Referring to coverage related to COP28, Jamie Henn, head of campaign group Fossil Free Media, told AFP that in more than a decade since the UN climate talks, he “has never seen such widespread disinformation campaign”.
rlp-ac/cw
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