Researchers call them “American whites” — bright-eyed environmentalists tweeting passionately in support of the UAE and its take on the upcoming COP28 climate summit. The only problem? They are not real.
Ben, Brianna, Emma, Caitlin and Chloe share a refreshingly optimistic look at the role of the Gulf state and its COP28 chief, oil executive Sultan Al Jaber, in promoting climate action.
Their sultry profile shots look like drawings from a fantasy novel – apparently created using an AI-powered picture generator. Their names, locations and environmental credentials do not appear together anywhere else online.
Analysts consulted by JEE News identified these and dozens of other Twitter accounts as engaging in coordinated activity, labeling the tactic a form of “astroturfing” — a low-profile attempt to sway public opinion. A misguided campaign on the surface.
For example, “blonde” accounts were created within hours of each other in August 2022, according to a digital analysis by Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of nongovernmental groups.
It said the accounts posted clusters of similar messages around the same time, including retweets of posts from the UAE embassy in Washington.
Summit organizers did not respond to JEE News requests for comment. The Guardian newspaper quoted an unnamed spokesperson as saying that the fake accounts “were created by external actors unconnected to COP28 and are clearly designed to discredit COP28 and the climate process.”
US and EU lawmakers, as well as campaigners, have called for Jaber’s resignation. He says his position as head of state-owned oil company ADNOC represents a conflict of interest for someone presiding over talks on ending planet-warming carbon emissions. have been
Jaber has the support of COP parties, including US Ambassador John Kerry. He has emphasized the rapid growth of renewable energy and acknowledged last week that “a phase-out of fossil fuels is inevitable.”
‘Greenwashing’
The Twitter campaign sought to portray Jabber as committed and capable of solving the environmental crisis.
When Romain Ayvallan, a campaigner at Oil Change International, tweeted about the threat that the Emirates-hosted COP28 “slows the transition away from fossil fuels”, it was dismissed by researchers as bogus. Multiple responses were received from identified accounts.
Dubai-based “lawyer” Caitlin praised Jabber’s leadership at COP28 as a “game changer” while “environmentalist” Emma praised his “passion for climate action”.
When the Center for Climate Reporting (CCR) said last month that Jaber’s team was “greenwashing” Wikipedia by editing pages to play up his role as head of ADNOC, it said the UAE 15 pro accounts also reacted similarly.
They all claimed to be young non-Emirati with an interest in climate change and human rights, and many expressed support for Jaber, CCR director Lawrence Carter told JEE News.
One account flagged by the researchers as fake was recognizable from the profile picture: it was watermarked with the address of an online face generator. A reverse image search revealed that the images on the other accounts were taken from stock image sites.
Computer scientist Diego Pacheco of the University of Exeter told JEE News after examining several accounts that they looked “unauthentic”, noting that some had changed their screen names or biographies after being flagged. had done
“It would be very unusual for authentic users to create and use these types of fake profile pictures or stock photos,” said Katharina Kleinen von Koenigsloo, professor of communication science at the University of Hamburg.
CAAD detailed a “coordinated effort” involving at least 28 accounts promoting the Gulf country with “suspicious patterns” of tweeting.
‘Extensive disinformation’
Digital disinformation analyst Mark Owen Jones shared with JEE News a list of 93 accounts he identified as being involved in “astroturfing” efforts, some of which were created two years ago. .
He said he focused largely on promoting the UAE’s COP28 account while promoting other official accounts and tagging its various foreign embassies.
“Usually in these operations it’s a PR company” pushing the messages, said Jones, of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, a rival country to the UAE.
“But it’s really hard to get a smoking gun,” he said.
Before billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the platform announced it had removed accounts linked to “state-sponsored information operations” in Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
Citing accounts from COP28, Jamie Hein, director of campaign group Fossil Free Media, told JEE News that in more than a decade after the UN climate talks he had seen “such widespread misinformation”.
