Darren Linvill
@DarrenLinvill
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Professor, Clemson University Media Forensics Hub (@ClemsonHub), studies lies, damn lies, and disinformation.
Clemson, SC
Joined September 2011
Yes, this video showing mail-in ballots being destroyed in Bucks County, PA is fake. And yes, its the Russians. This Storm-1516 narrative appeared less than three hours ago and it's already been shared on X tens of thousands of times. It's gonna be a rough couple of weeks.
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This video is Russian, Storm-1516 disinformation. No one was attacked at a polling station in Wisconsin. The video is created in a manner consistent with past Storm narratives and @AlertChannel is an account Terada's R-FBI has used consistently for distribution.
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@Shayan86 There seems to actually be a small active network of these (really successful) accounts. It looks like the scam may actually just be art related and not future monetization.
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Here is Russian, Storm-1516 disinformation. Remember when you see this, disinformation doesn't need to be good to be impactful. If you are reading this, you probably aren't the target audience. 1/3
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Video currently circulating of Haitian immigrants claiming to be voting illegally in Georgia has several hallmarks of the Russian, Storm-1516 campaign. The narrative focus, style and production of the video, as well as the distribution method all line up. 1/2
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A small win for democracy, but I'll take it. Mira Terada, head of the Russian Foundation for Battling Injustice, has been suspended after posting election disinformation two days ago. Her organization is responsible for disseminating Storm-1516 false narratives.
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Great work @RosalesReport & @murphy . American influencer @Alphafox78 was paid by Russian agent Simeon Boikov to post Storm-1516 disinfo and undermine election integrity. 1/3
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WE'RE HIRING! . know a young scholar who wants to spend the next couple of years building a better understanding of social media disinformation? Please share! . Visiting assistant professor, no teaching, any background and skill set welcome
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Story about Harris & Emhoff being paid by Diddy just went live on a Storm-1516 run website. This is the same page that posted the fake Walz story. It includes a video from a "New York layer" sharing the details. Narrative laundering 101 . possible this will hit soon.
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On the heels of the election pro-Russian influencers have been sharing this video of "Ukrainians" shooting and burning a MAGA dummy. We believe it is likely fake and a product of the Foundation for Battling Injustice's Storm-1516 campaign. Why is this important?. 1/3
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The main target of Putin's #disinfo has ALWAYS been Russia . w/ @CraigSilverman @jeffykao @propublica & @ClemsonHub we uncovered a multi-platform campaign working to fight Russia's information war over Ukraine 1/9.
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This fake interview between Terada and "a former aide to Adrian Fontes" is a blatant attempt by Russia to spread doubt in the integrity of the U.S. election. Both Terada and Bowes are part of the Foundation for Battling Injustice and Storm-1516. This is what they do. 1/2
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We were almost bumped by a lucky Turkey being pardoned, but still managed to talk for a little while with @KatyTurNBC and @selectedwisdom this afternoon about ongoing foreign disinformation efforts (@plwarre @ClemsonResearch).
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Without question the video is fake . I cannot think of a less cost effective and more risky way of getting out the vote than to fly people here from Haiti and provide them with fake documents. 2/2.
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Pleased to have worked on this great piece with @craigtimberg & @isaacstanbecker. This network really points to the difficulty the platforms have playing whack-a-mole with disinformation accounts. 1/5
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Just discovered this . 10k retweets and 23k likes (and still going up) in the past five hours for a fake account that was created a day ago. I have thoughts about just why this tweet works so well . it has layers. Curious what others think.
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I keep seeing stories about how Ukraine is winning the information war. That might be true . for the information you are reading. But spend five minutes in nationalist RU Twitter and you see a VERY different picture. This is Putin's audience. It may be the only one he needs.
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@auronburner They are trying to sow distrust in the election process, as they have in each of the past two elections. That said, they support Trump. The Iranians support Harris-Walz. Neither of these things is good for our democracy.
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AI isn't going to solve the misinfo problem. The tools Facebook and Twitter are using won't solve the misinfo problem. Taking our quiz isn't going to solve it either, but it might help you understand it better. That will help. W/ @plwarre .
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@DougBillings @Charmed700 You can tell they are Antifa because of the white supremacist tattoos.
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Here at Clemson, @plwarre and I have spent a couple years learning about state sponsored disinformation. Just published with Rolling Stone our lessons learned (thanks @AndyKroll and @ScottShaneNYT for all the help and advice).
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@Shayan86 It hasn't, at least not that we have found . but (1) not all of them do, especially lately, (2) not sure this one would strategically benefit from placement on a fake news page, and (3) Dougan and Storm-1516 are not synonymous.
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@EnrahJ It is the originating X account, and it has been sharing Storm content for a very long time. Not the first time it has been the first to share a narrative.
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Years of work spreading disinformation has opened up a new tactic for the Russians to use: Fake fact checking. The disinfo is the disinfo. Read what I, @plwarre and @ClemsonHub found w/ @CraigSilverman @jeffykao & @propublica . #StandWithUkraine .
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Here we are . Aug 14, 2021. HRC is not under house arrest, JFK Jr. is still dead, and Biden remains president. Who could have possibly predicted this?.
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I would add that the originating account, @izzaag, is quite clearly suspicious and only started posting a month ago. This type of account is consistent with how the network has originated content in the past.
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Most of these accounts were using "digital black face" and pretended to be Black American #MAGA supporters. They used images of real Americans in their profiles. Several had tens of thousands of followers and received many thousands of retweets and likes. 2/5
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@donie @LibertyLionNews @oneunderscore__ @CraigSilverman @BrandyZadrozny @RidT @btdecker @Joey_Galvin It definitely had a previous life . tweeted about music and partying between 2009 and 2012 then went dormant before coming back in June as LibertyLionNews and RT vdare. It's possible they purchased it.
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My daughter started school two weeks ago, earlier than most . and after two weeks the exponential growth of delta variant cases has caused them to announce today our school district will be going virtual. I hope others are taking note.
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Check out our new @ClemsonHub work describing an RU affiliated campaign undermining Ukraine. Stories start with fake social media accounts, are disseminated through foreign media as paid content, and spread using a beltway news site - a site made using generative AI! .1/5
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#Crypto fraud has become a major problem causing $100s of millions in damages each year. One of the most common forms is a spin on a classic investment scam: selling expertise that is too good to be true. Meet Klava Petina, a Facebook account who wants to make you wealthy! š§µ
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@LouiseMensch @donie @oneunderscore__ @CNN @Twitter @plwarre It tweeted as infotrump2020 for only a few days in Dec 2016 and switched handles. The style of tweet remained fairly consistent, as did the volume. I still find it odd no one (cough cough @donie) has reported the fact the account made news before.
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This video, like other's @clemsonhub has tracked, uses a network of influencers organized by Terada's Foundation for Battling Injustice. @MyLordBebo has been central in spreading these false narratives. Would love to know if he also gets $100 a post. 3/3.
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Two days ago @soledadobrien may have accidentally helped a Russian disinformation campaign. This is a thread about how all of us, but especially high profile users, need to be careful when giving a platform to anonymous social media accounts we don't know. 1/6.
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This one showed up on the fact news page patriotvoicenews(.)com. This is the same page that shared the Walz narrative last week. Initial research suggests it then originated on social media with pro-Russian @narrative_hole. 2/3
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Check out our work (w/ @sirvizalot @JENDUCK & @RightingA) on #QAnon in First Monday . "Mapping the Messenger" dives into Q's original drops to examine how they evolved. What did we find, you ask? 1/5
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. Because this video encapsulates all Russian disinformation we have been tracking over the last two years. Their goal is to end Western military support for Ukraine. Is this Russia's first message after Trump's victory? It isn't subtle: "stop sending them tax money." . 2/3.
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Remember, almost all accounts are real people . but troll are out there trying to influence our conversations before November. If you have a moment, go take the Spot the Troll quiz at It might help make you a little more vigilant and resilient. 5/5.
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#DCBlackOut is among the more interesting disinfo campaigns I've examined. Hacked accounts tweeting that fake accounts are lying are being used by other fake accounts as proof that the first set of fake accounts were real all along! THERE IS NO TRUTH!
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@me3929374604 There are Black people in Russia. This campaign, like previous Russian campaigns, is known to employ West African immigrants in their content. Some specific people have been identified.
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Thrilled and proud to have worked with the @clarissaward and her amazing @cnni team: @katie_polglase, @sebshukla, @TimListerCNN, @GianlucaMezzo. Months back @plwarre and I gave them an absolutely absurd idea. They took that idea and hit it out of the park.
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This one is an interesting example of synergy because as @antibot4navalny has pointed out, the Russian Doppelganger campaign has been pushing content suggesting Diddy supports Harris for some time. 3/3.
For nearly a year, pro-Kremlin bots of Doppelganger are using fake celebrity quotes to endorse its talking points. Now they try the opposite way: a toxic celebrity is given fake quotes to smear Kamala Harris and aid to Ukraine. 1/3
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Just under a year ago @plwarre and I published a piece with @ForeignAffairs arguing that the single biggest target of Putin's #disinformation was the Russian people. Reposting it today as I believe it is good context for understanding what's happening now.
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@selectedwisdom I did some digging, as best I could identify the first tweet on Twitter to mention a 5G/COVID connection is the linked tweet from 01-21. The conspiracists started the next day (in Spain and Italy). Smart Kiwi.
Claims that 5G is causing Coronavirus starting in . 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. .
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Teaching is exhausting work. My students here at @ClemsonUniv make it all worthwhile, though. Read about what they've accomplished to help fight social media disinformation. You'll be impressed, I sure am. @BristowatHome @ciclemson @ClemsonPrez @plwarre
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It took the better part of a year to put this together, but @plwarre and I are finally releasing our #SpotTheTroll quiz. Just in time for November . it will only do any good if people see it, though, so please share. Thanks @ClemsonHub & @ClemsonPrez .
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Proud my wife, the amazing and talented @CClaiborneL, is the next County Council rep for Pickens County, SC's district one. The first Dem woman ever on council. Won by 9 points, out performing all recent Dems. Reasonable people still cross party lines for the right candidate.
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I am outrageously proud of my amazing and talented wife, @CClaiborneL. This is true every day, but especially today because she just filed to run for Pickens County Council. She is going to make our corner of South Carolina even better!
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These accounts were actively being identified by users on Twitter, even while spreading like wildfire through specific echo chambers. 3/5.
Two more fake "YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP' accounts identified by @DropMikeWilson using someone else's photos. but too lazy to change the script.
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@Javen_Bullets @BreakingBrown @Kennedy_School What they are describing as "disinformation creep" seems to actually just be "people using Twitter in the way it was designed to be used." It waters down the term "disinformation.".
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Lots of responses to this tweet saying Russian trolls are responsible for #BareShelvesBiden trending. This is not the case. It's seems to be mostly the influence of @Catturd2. I have MANY thoughts about Catturd and the influence it has on this site. But it ain't Russian.
The hashtag that begins while America sleeps. Let me be clear, when Trump claimed the virus was no big deal, here in NY and NJ we had bare shelves āmy photo March 16, 2020 #BareShelvesBiden
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@conspirator0 Yes . and her Facebook page isn't suspicious AT ALL! Only picture she has comes from "Top Five Getaways for Humans and Pets in D.C." page .
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As of this moment, the largest (USC) and third largest (CofC) universities in SC have mask mandates. Clemson (second largest) does not. I know @ClemsonUniv loves cutting edge research, but I don't think this test and control group would get IRB approval.
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@KyleJGlen This is part of a Russian narrative laundering campaign that's been going on since last August. They've created several different news pages and Bugatti is the 37th narrative we've IDed. Most undermine Ukraine. We worked with the NYT on this piece .
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Thread: A network of inauthentic, Russian language, IRA-style accounts we've been analyzing here at @ClemsonHub (and shared with @ForeignAffairs) put in a lot of labor to paint the U.S. in a negative light . let me share some highlights.
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@plwarre @AndyShain @UofSC . "In a scathing letter sent to the USC board and administration April 5, Moore said her family received ādeep expressions of appreciation and recognition from the faculty and leadership of Clemson University.ā".
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I don't know, @Alphafox78 . Should paid promotions be labeled as such?. Does it not count if the payment comes in rubles?
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Russia understands the influencer economy. @GuntherEagleman just shared this probable Russian, Storm-1516 piece of disinformation with his 1M followers. Expect to see more of this . like any good lobbying campaign they want this issue at the top of Trump's agenda.
On the heels of the election pro-Russian influencers have been sharing this video of "Ukrainians" shooting and burning a MAGA dummy. We believe it is likely fake and a product of the Foundation for Battling Injustice's Storm-1516 campaign. Why is this important?. 1/3
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This multimedia report from @its_linus, @LapenkovaSVT, and their team at Sweden's @svtdataj is fantastic in how it succinctly lays out an ongoing Russian narrative laundering operation. 1/3.
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@aaronjmate @conspirator0 @GrayzoneProject I've spent two years reading Russian posts (and often thought maybe I should be doing something better with my time). I've looked through millions of posts in half a dozen languages. It wasn't click bait. It's an attack on Western democracy.
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We've spent six weeks exploring #Xinjiang disinformation and how China attempts to control the narrative. @plwarre and I (with the help of @ciclemson) put together some findings for @lawfareblog. Short summary: it's all about the #Xinjiangcotton.
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They weren't just pretending to be Black Conservatives however. There were also accounts purporting to be a white officer in Philly, Erica Kious (Pelosi hair stylist), and a few of Kayleigh McEnany. 4/5
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Taught a class on civil discourse this semester . found this little nugget from a student reflecting on the class: "What I have learned is it is more important to find people with the same values as you than it is to find people with the same beliefs as you.".
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@The_Ant_Hill_07 Hey, come on . I've only got 280 characters to work with here. Of course I'm concerned about election integrity.
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Seeing lots of people using the image below to suggest Jake Angeli, the spear wielding "Buffalo" man who stormed the capitol, is an Antifa plant (Antifa is everywhere today!). Funny what you see if you un-crop photos.
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These suspended accounts displayed a range of Russian signals. Easiest to talk about publicly was the fact that they followed the 2016 playbook exactly. First, they fluidly engaged in a range of communities. Persona included BLM, MAGA, LGBTQ, & Latino. 2/4
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Posts like this from @GenFlynn are the result of an ongoing and extremely successful Russian narrative laundering campaign we've been following here at @ClemsonHub.
This down below is @realDonaldTrump approx a month ago in NH. This article out late NOV:. āThe lavish lifestyles and controversial financial dealings of President Zelensky and his associates have cast a shadow over Ukraineās already fragile trust in governance. This.
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@JakeLahut Jake, you aren't going to make any friends on this platform repeating questionable claims about @conspirator0. Followed it for years and that researcher just follows the data.
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This work is a piece of the RU disinfo puzzle that we suspected but hadn't confirmed. I was pleased to contribute. To learn more about Storm-1516's connection to Boikov and the Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice, see @clemsonhub's recent report. 3/3.
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For the past few weeks, @ClemsonHub students and I have been researching an inauthentic network of accounts around @SpicyPandaAcc. Today we got scooped by @nytimes (@stevenleemyers, @paulmozur, & @jeffykao)! 1/3
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Our team at @ClemsonHub released a report 4 weeks ago (with @rhysblakely) about Iranian troll accounts influencing British political discourse. SOMEONE is still working at X, because they have finally all been suspended. FYI @themajorityscot .
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Another fake news page associated with Dougan and the Russian disinformation machine just went live. Austincrier(.)com . they didn't even bother to make a ridiculous AI generated logo for this one. But they are peddling the same lies about Ukraine.
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Latest work from @ClemsonHub out today in @thetimes. Iran is running an impressive social media troll campaign to influence British politics. Excellent work, @rhysblakely!
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Had an awful stomach bug and was sad to miss the last day of class with graduating seniors yesterday . got back to work late this afternoon. This is what they did to my office to say goodbye. #ClemsonFamily
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Russia's move to use the influencer economy rather than building their own social media troll accounts has had some recent success, but it comes with risks. Real people have minds of their own. See @AlphaFox's mea culpa, below.
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@Alex__Katz More likely immigrant community in St. Petersburg. This woman was part of one of their narratives last fall.
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Russian disinfo is getting better. There are 3 mil known IRA English tweets, dating back about five years. They had a tweet last week with more "likes" than all of these. It's just brain candy, but it's candy that got 432k people to like it. @plwarre @donie @page88 @craigtimberg
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@GaSecofState Brad is right!
Video currently circulating of Haitian immigrants claiming to be voting illegally in Georgia has several hallmarks of the Russian, Storm-1516 campaign. The narrative focus, style and production of the video, as well as the distribution method all line up. 1/2
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@leftiblog @conspirator0 @MoonofA I spent a big chunk of four months of my life scrolling through three million IRA tweets along with my colleagues. 7 of 3800 accounts we examined engaged in "clickbait" . if they were waiting to monetize then they waited for four years. That would be an odd business model.
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@conspirator0 @DianaWi59797083 @JasonMAGA4ever These are definitely the same crew we tracked a few weeks back, they love that "red wave" image .
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#Clemson hive mind . I received this FB add yesterday. Apparently it "all starts at Clemson." BUT WHERE? . Where is this photo taken? I've asked multiple Clemson employees. Nobody can identify the location. @ClemsonUniv, @OurClemson can you help?
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Sitting in a final exam right now. I try not to let conformity constrain me in my test writing . Current exam has a few multiple choice questions but I don't always stop at five options. Some questions go A through L. Handed the test out and just about had a full scale riot.
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I did this, guaranteeing I won't get a job at the Twitter corporate office anytime soon .
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Please . tell us again, Tara, how wrong CNN was for accusing you of spreading Russian disinformation! . Also, will you ask @MiraMiru4 why they chose to put a bottle of Taco Bell hot sauce in the background? Is that the best they could do to make it look like the real Arizona?.
MSM does not want us to share this. However, if this is further verified by independent media, it's compelling. Will this potential whistleblower go on the record ?.
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Here, QAnon neatly lays out for the Q community how to engage in a social media information operation.
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Listening to "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town" in the car. Immediately after the line "he sees you when you're sleeping" I hear from my seven year old right behind me: "Creepy.".
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This is the very first #DCBlackout tweet, early morning June 1st, and it's singular response, sent not long after. The exchange summarizes the entire campaign.
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Today I gave back some REALLY bad test grades . and I'm not the only one. Colleagues I've spoken to are having similar experiences across the university. Students' ability to sit in a class and learn and process information has not recovered.
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