An allegedly citizen-sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation (Source)
Tailor-made disinformation is also provided for people who prefer in-depth ‘analyses’. The needs of this target audience are met with lengthy blog articles containing seemingly accurate lists of sources underlining the credibility of the text. The references, however, usually lead to other disinformation sites.
Many fake news sites, such as Sputnik, describe their content as ‘alternative’. In reality this usually means ‘pro-Russian’, ‘conspiracy theoretical’ and ‘anti-Western’. Articles critical of Putin’s regime are not published.
In January 2016, while Russia’s warplanes were bombing civilian targets such as hospitals in Syria, Twitter activists founded a new pro-Kremlin domain, Southfront.org, titled ‘South Front, Analysis and Intelligence’. This site promises its readers that it ‘digs out the truth in issues which are barely covered by the states concerned and mainstream media’ (South Front 2015). South Front seems to have a special target group: conflict news enthusiasts attracted to conspiracy theories and action films.
The content of the South Front website is a fascinating hybrid of revealingly detailed military intelligence and totally bogus stories. The site has published a series of articles titled ‘Russia Defence Reports’, which visualise the actions in Syria of the insurgents and the armies of Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a ‘text analysis’ format, as well as through Hollywood-style ‘video reports’ with exciting action film music. The content focuses on the success of Russia’s armed forces, and showing off Russia’s weapons. The videos have titles such as ‘Russian Airspace Defence Forces’, ‘(Russian) Anti-Missile Shield’, and ‘Russia Develops Military Infrastructure and Facilities in Latakia’. Versions of the South Front website are available in other languages too. Nothing about Russia attacking civilians is published (see South Front 2016).
South Front uses Facebook to share its contents (Facebook 2016). It has over 17,500 fans and troll profiles liking, commenting on and sharing its posts. These include articles, photos (for example, of Russian military equipment in action in Syria) and other items, such as caricatures of US President Barack Obama promoting gay marriage. As on most pro-Kremlin and disinformation Facebook sites, the quality of the comments made by South Front readers is low. It reveals the commenters’ lack of knowledge of both military issues and international politics. This lack of understanding is often taken advantage of by the pro-Kremlin propagandists. South Front portrays itself as being a crowdsourced project, but it looks more like a professional info-war project run or backed by the Russian military.
Entirely by accident, a fresh informational attack against SouthFront (the text above was published on May 10) was synchronized with the unlawful actions of PayPal and other destructive actions against the project.
We are once again grateful for such a high evaluation of Southfront’s work. Unfortunately, The author’s evaluation of us is weakened by the low quality of the analysis. Indeed, how did the author concluded that SouthFront was launched in January, 2016? The accusations in a propaganda approach also set us wondering amid propaganda set phrases such as “In January 2016, while Russia’s warplanes were bombing civilian targets such as hospitals in Syria…”.
However, we are grateful for the attention given to our work, at a time when SouthFront is in a complicated situation, due to the unlawful actions of transnational corporations.
We suggest to all those who participate in a media campaign aimed at discrediting Southfront, to send emails to the Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry in order to inform them of WHO their main propaganda outlet is. Maybe, in this case, they will at least provide a moral support to the project.
This is so funny. Congratulations Southfront. What I am getting from this is you guys are completely legit.
Seriously though, what I read here, I also put into the mix of publications like Reuters, Bloomberg, ect. More times than not, far more many times than not, your take has proven to be the one closest to reality. God bless you guys and the heck with the critics. They do what they want. Why can´t you?
It seems all this bulk of governments-funded “experts” is scared by the fact that somebody is able to have and disseminate own opinion.
Totally agreed. What I have discovered is that many of the major publications, nearly all that are EU or North American based, have the same mantra. It doesn´t matter what is going, they stick to the theme come hell or high water. When the garbage with PayPal is settled, another indicator that you are having an impact, I am deciding to support you in my small way. Have a great week. :)
Looks like you’re hitting them where it hurts, good job South Front, you’re on the right track.
Such articles make my blood boil. It is hard to believe that institutions like that and people like the author, who are supposed to represent our high moral standards and values, actually believe what they write and are doing the right thing. I mean, not each and every one of them can be a right out demon, can they? Are they unaware that they are helping the Syrian people get massacred and tortured. Moreover, all accusations to Southfront and the so-called aggressive ways of the Russian regime, are projections. It is exactly the opposite, it is the western media and regimes who are purpousfully spreading the lies!
Hello Karl.
I don´t think people like her watch what is actually occurring. I stumbled into Syria.Liveumap and started watching the vidoes and movement of the battle lines in Syria, when I first began researhing it. There was a sense of something being wrong, because I had been following the Ukraine and there was a lot not adding up correctly over there either.
I am not in the fight but, night after night of watching vidoes of real people being blown to pieces, atrocity after atrocity, this began to effect me. I feel very hurt by what they are doing to those people, especially the kids. Then a different view of the official positions of various governments emerged and I began spotting the nonsense. Today, I see what is going on and I am not fooled.
People in the occidental media, they keep a distance from this. They do not want to see what is being wrought. Their world is clean, with just a hint of the filth. So they sit back and BS from dawn till dusk. It is my take on her and her world. Take care. A good day to you.
Good That means its gonna get done right!
Irony?
I posted a comment to the original article by Jessikka Aro. It pains me to see how far her being disinformed goes. Anaizing her article, I can only come to the conclusion that she is way in on it. She even propagates that the western public should be protected from disinformation. A very creepy woman indeed … Well, here goes my comment
My observation is that your in-depth analyses come to the same conclusion that the western corporate media comes to for the last few years. Some very bluntly (The Sun: Putin’s missile), others with fancier words and in-depth analyses (such as yourself). Yet always coming to the same conclusion, which is the unanimous consensus that: putin bad! putin bad!! putin bad!!
Nobody disagrees even the slightest in the whole media landscape! How is such a thing possible.
Nothing about why he would be so much worse than EU or US leaders, not to mention their allies such as Turkey and S-Arabia.
You seem like an intelligent person. I just can’t grasp how you can be such a willing mouth piece of the western banking elites and be so totally blind to the orwellian agenda the West is currently pursuing, badmouthing anything and anyone that goes against their agenda of world domination, or full spectrum dominance, a term that you’re undoubtedly aware of.
NATO has crawled toward most of Russia’s borders, but Putin is bad for holding military drills on Russian territory.
We only hear war retoric from NATO, coming closer and closer to Russia, putting up shields that can easily be transformed into rocket systems, Russia keeps seeking dialogue, yet Putin is the evil one.
Putin is bad for … invading Crimea? Please go ask Crimean residents how bad it actually is. They may very well have been bombed like Donetsk.
Putin is bad for … supporting the Russian speaking part of Ukraine? Well, about half of the Ukraine population was not happy at all with the western backed coup d’etat to oust Yanukovic. Please go ask Ukrainian residents how happy they are with the current situation in their country.
Putin is bad for … being harsh on western backed opposition and NGO’s? Everybody knows that the EU/US/Soros would love a bloody revolution and regime change in Russia. It’s understandible that Putin would prevend any possibility of destabalization and revolts, such as western imposed revolts in Ukraine, Lybia, Syria. I hope that you prefer peace over bloodshed.
Putin is bad for … helping Assad in Syria. Oh, Assad is the great dictator, under whose regime Syria was one of the most secular, prosperous countries in the Middle-East. But the western leadership, which you appear to esteem so highly, is saying (together with a few totalitarian, M-E regimes): Assad must go! He kills his own people! You seem to believe it. And suddenly murdering rebel groups are the good guys, and if Assad would go, they would make Syria a much better place. The western backed ‘moderate’ Ahrar Al-Sham are massacring villages, which is a proven fact. Yet France and US refuse to list them as terrorists. I would like to ask you, please, seek out Syrian people who speak out about the situation. Jamila Assi is one of them, and see if you then still have that same opinion.
I deeply suffer over the situation in Syria and the Syrian people. And I honestly see possibilities for the end of their suffering, but not by the hand of the US-led coalition and the moderate rebels. Only Assad with Russia’s help can aleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.
My question to you. Do you really believe that Putin or Assad are really much worse than, say, Erdogan or the Saudis? I honestly don’t. Yet, I don’t see a continuous anti-Erdogan or anti-Saudi campaign in the western media. This goes beyond me.
Probably you will say I’m a troll. I am simply trying to point out something obvious which you seem to completely overlook, and that is that the West, our leadership and our foreign policy is as black, loveless, merciless and power hungry as any other in the world. Their greatest weapon is the media and the people’s ignorence, the normalcy bias, because the farce of democracy must be maintained.
Thank God for the internet. Thank God for independent media. Thank God for alternative media.
And I’m not saying that Putin, or RT, or Sputnik, or Southfront is flawless and perfect. Yet they provide a much needed counterweight to the unanimous consensus and false narrative that exists in western media.
Keep up the good work Southfront! You are obviously a thorn in the empire of chaos’s side, since they are giving you so much attention on all fronts. Or as George Orwell would say “In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act”
Greetings from occupied Sweden.
Sefton Delmer would be proud of Southfront :-)
Typical. Jessikka Aro is another ‘indispensable and exceptional’ lunatic in the west that projects her demons on Russia. She can only think that Russia would use trolls and disinformation on the west while unable to conceive that the west is doing it to the rest of the world.
Have Russia and China been bringing suffering and death to millions since just 1990? Did they create Al Qaeda and aid and abet its spread across the MENA, the Balkans, and into Russia? Did their bombing cause the migrant wave into Europe? Did they use fascists and nazis in Ukraine to overthrow the elected government? Did they bring chaos and immense suffering to Libya? Are they arming the head choppers and liver eaters in Syria? No, these are the hellish gifts from the US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals and its proxies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
She and her fellow lunatics in the west remind me of another people that thought they were ‘uber alles’. They represent stupidity, ignorance, and fanatical religious belief that only they are the good.
The US must be neutralized or defeated, otherwise the US is leading the world to catastrophe.
Admittedly when I first came to this site mid-last year, I remained suspicious due to the pro-Russian perspective. However contrary to what this Jessikka (what kind of spelling is that btw?) ‘expert’ claims, this site does indeed admits failures on the part of the pro-Syrian side when they occur. It also correctly points out when & where new offensives are likely to happen, although obviously they can’t be right every single time.
I ask her, what exactly constitutes ‘propaganda’ in her opinion? – Is it any opinion that supports a narrative different to her pro-US/NATO narrative? By that logic every US media outlet or online news analysis is also propaganda as far as anyone with an opposing view is concerned.
I am no fool, nor am I a conspiracy-theorist, as this smug, self-righteous woman so arrogantly implies (“low-information reader” is the new go-to derogatory term for intellectually-dishonest journalists and politicians). I read from many different Western & Russian sources and am capable of ‘reading between the lines’ when I doubt a claim by either side.
But if all I wanted to hear about Syria & Russia was from dumbed-down, sanitized, single-narrative press-reports regurgitated from Washington or NATO spokespeople, I’d only ever read the latest CNN/FOX/BBC drivel.
a TRUMP presidency will permit an entirely new relationship to develop with Russia, which is sorely needed. Down with the commies of degenerate western europe, up with a new russian and american relationship. this publication is refreshing and informative and interesting journalism, so different than the corporate media of the west, america included. I wish all americans new about it. Your readership would go ballistic. The view of russia is changing dramatically in America, for the better. Honesty is the best policy, as we say in america, which sadly, has degenerated into a a socialist hellhole.
I come here every day to see what is new with Ukraine, Syria, etc. Information I can’t find anywhere else. Great job guys!
The West is right because its right and thus a counter perspective is automatically wrong. Of course, South Front does present from a Russian perspective to an extent, but everyone reports and argues from some vantagepoint. Would you say to a Marxist ‘you can’t argue for Marxism because you’re a Marxist?’ Would you say to a libertarian ‘you can’t argue for libertarianism because you’re a libertarian’?
What delusional idiots who can’t stand objective journalism. I hope Southfront seeks Russian funding LOL
sarcasm.
How weird. All this time I was a paid Russian troll! I had no idea me following this site made me a Pro-Russian Agent! Here I thought I was just a regular guy. So I have to ask everyone here where do I collect my check from the Kremlin?
Isn’t it rather interesting that “pro-Russia” equals misinformation and evil propaganda but pro-western equals truth and justice? I have found nothing more interesting than the attempt to spin a narrative portraying the West as the bastion of truth and freedom. I have come to believe that those who spout that are in fact true believers. They aren’t lying they are simply deluded by their arrogant jingoism and narcissistic worldview.
Russia is no shining utopia or city on the hill however it is opposing the encroachment of an increasingly corrupt, morally degenerate, and decadent Western Humanism. That is why Russia must be portrayed as an enemy. If truth hinders such a goal well then the truth be damned.
Sputnik news is not controlled by perverts of the left that seem to control most of the world. Sputnik reports on many topics throughout the world that has nothing to do with anything regarding Russia’s interest. At least Sputnik news will report news that these leftist homos will suppress from the rest of the people throughout the world. As far as I’m concerned if you are going to suppress stories then it’s because you have something to hide. Sputnik won’t hide a story and allows anyone to comment on the story which most perverted western media outlets refuse to do.