‘Killing the Truth’ Report
The Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, has always posed a dual threat to the Assad regime and its backers.
Firstly, the successful rescue work of White Helmets volunteers frustrates the ability of the regime to drive civilians from opposition areas through indiscriminate attacks. Knowing the White Helmets are there to rescue your family if a bomb falls on your home is some degree of comfort to those facing the violent cleansing of their communities.
Secondly, the White Helmets threaten the regime and its allies by bearing witness. The helmet cameras that volunteers wear document the ongoing illegal attacks perpetrated by the Assad regime and its allies and collect evidence of their crimes.
The international community has done little to stop the bombing of Syrian civilians since the government of Bashar al-Assad started its aerial campaign in earnest five years ago. Now governments around the world and social media companies are allowing Russia a free hand to target rescue workers and cast doubt on the evidence of war crimes they are collecting.
There have always been conspiracies about the Syrian conflict. But when Russia became actively involved in the aerial bombing campaign there was an explosion in disinformation targeting the White Helmets. The volunteers had become the primary witnesses to war crimes, and Russia wanted them silenced. The armies of online trolls spreading lies about the White Helmets began to make some people hesitant about supporting them.
While it was impossible to counter every online disinformation attack, we wanted to provide definitive proof that not only were these smears untrue, but that their spread was part of a concerted effort to kill the truth.
We spent six months working with independent investigative researchers and online disinformation experts Graphika to map out how the lies were spreading online. We also researched how networks of bloggers, academics, celebrities, and fake NGOs were cultivated and amplified by official Russian channels to give them the appearance of authoritative sources of information.
Once the research was complete, we knew that there was one more critical step. We decided to invite a trusted news partner to use our work and build it into an authoritative account with some additional investigation and reporting.
We approached the Guardian, offering them an exclusive. They followed up by conducting their own in-depth interviews and fact-checking processes they published exactly what we were hoping for: an authoritative expose of the Russian-backed disinformation campaign against the White Helmets. Their article and our report continue to be shared and referenced as a way to debunk the lies online.
What we learnt
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