select all

Is Weird Twitter a Russian Psyop?

Louise Mensch. Photo: WPA Pool/Getty Images

This past weekend, Louise Mensch — former Conservative MP and current publisher of Heat Street — asserted that, among other things, the 2014 Ferguson riots were orchestrated by the Russian government in order to seed unrest in America. Mensch — who is frequently cited as some sort of authority on this subject, for unclear reasons — runs in the same circle of tweet-thread pundits as Eric Garland (of “time for some game theory” fame) and national-security columnist John Schindler. All three have found a certain measure of online fame in describing how Putin is playing 12-D diplomatic secret chess to destabilize America.

Being a Twitter pundit is a great gig, if you can get it, but you run certain professional risks. Yesterday, popular Twitter user Leon Chang posted a series of Photoshopped tweets showing Mensch, Garland, and Schindler discussing Wendy’s chicken nuggets (a reference to an online campaign by one user to get 18 million retweets in exchange for free nugs).

Mensch, once made aware of the tweet, posted this this afternoon.

Obviously, the idea that Weird Twitter shenanigans are part of a Kremlin misinformation campaign is a ridiculous notion. (Or is it?) (It is.)

Two years ago, Mensch tried to cite search-auto-complete results as evidence of anti-Semitism on Twitter, when in reality, she was looking at past queries that she had searched.

Asked if he had a comment about Mensch’s claim that he is a Russian partisan, Chang responded, “Yeah. It’s funny.”

Louise Mensch Mistakes Weird Twitter Joke for Russian Psyop