SouthFront –– The Twitter account of the pro-opposition blog “In Venezuela,” appears to be run from Toronto, Canada, and an in-the-field news source run by Bellingcat member, Giancarlo Fiorella.

The “open-intelligence investigation network,” Bellingcat, is infamous for its biased reporting and forwarding the mainstream media narrative. Its connections to the Institute of Statecraft and its pet project the Integrity Initiative are also no secret.

The connection was initially made by Twitter user Geroman:

https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1089918208700755968

https://twitter.com/Malinka1102/status/1089920272860397568

In the comments, some users suggested that the Venezuela Opposition field news account is similar to many of “patriotic Syrian accounts” based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. https://twitter.com/alinaqvi11011/status/1090024276961513473

Other comments called out Twitter users who were initially claimed to be “in the reality of it” in Venezuela, such as one user who claimed to be starving and lining up in Venezuela for five hours for a loaf of bread, while a comment several days earlier from the same user showed they were living in an apartment in Paris and studying fashion.

Another user pointed out an interesting dynamic – the wealthier class are usually “Westernized” and speak English, while poorer classed need to have their social media accounts translated from Spanish. More often than not, Venezuelan pro-opposition social media reports are disseminated in English.

As always when ostensible Venezuelans are presented on the news, listen to the language they speak. The richer class will be westernised and speak English; the poorer class will need to be translated from Spanish. Not seldom, the report contains *no-one speaking Spanish*… — Real Venezuelan PM Mark J Doran #JC4PM2019 (@MarkJDoran) January 24, 2019

Regardless, it should be noted that Bellingcat has published numerous articles claiming that governments not friendly to Western interests were gassing protesters and using over-the-top violence against them. Reports claiming that protesters were being targeted by live rounds often came shortly thereafter, and Bellingcat will likely follow the same script for Venezuela.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Integrity Initiative launched an operation to combat “Russian disinformation” in Venezuela, and the Institute for Statecraft sent some representatives to organize some open lectures on fighting “fake news.” Or rather, how to spread them and propagate a certain narrative and cause even further hysteria.

Top Photo | Syria’s opposition poster-girl, Bana Alabed, promotes Bellingcat at an event put on by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Photo | Twitter

Source | SouthFront