Technique T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona

Summary: An institution with a fact checking organisation persona presents itself as an organisation which produces reports which assess the validity of others’ reporting / statements.

While presenting as a fact checking organisation is not an indication of inauthentic behaviour, an influence operation may have its narratives amplified by fact checking organisations. Threat actors can fabricate fact checking organisations (T0143.002: Fabricated Persona, T0097.202: News Outlet Persona), or they can impersonate existing fact checking outlets (T0143.003: Impersonated Persona, T0097.202: News Outlet Persona).

Legitimate fact checking organisations could use their persona for malicious purposes, or be exploited by threat actors (T0143.001: Authentic Persona, T0097.202: News Outlet Persona).

Associated Techniques and Sub-techniques
T0097.102: Journalist Persona: Institutions presenting as fact checking organisations may also present journalists working within the organisation.
T0097.202: News Outlet Persona: Fact checking organisations may present as operating as part of a larger news outlet (e.g. The UK’s BBC News has the fact checking service BBC Verify). When an actor presents as the fact checking arm of a news outlet, they are presenting both a News Outlet Persona and a Fact Checking Organisation Persona.
Belongs to tactic stage: TA16

Incident	Descriptions given for this incident
I00084 Russia turns its diplomats into disinformation warriors	“[Russia’s social media] reach isn't the same as Russian state media, but they are trying to recreate what RT and Sputnik had done," said one EU official involved in tracking Russian disinformation. "It's a coordinated effort that goes beyond social media and involves specific websites." “Central to that wider online playbook is a Telegram channel called Warfakes and an affiliated website. Since the beginning of the conflict, that social media channel has garnered more than 725,000 members and repeatedly shares alleged fact-checks aimed at debunking Ukrainian narratives, using language similar to Western-style fact-checking outlets.” In this example a Telegram channel (T0151.004: Chat Platform, T0155.007: Encrypted Communication Channel) was established which presented itself as a source of fact checks (T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona).
I00120 factcheckUK or fakecheckUK? Reinventing the political faction as the impartial factchecker	Ahead of the 2019 UK Election during a leader’s debate, the Conservative party rebranded their “Conservative Campaign Headquarters Press” account to “FactCheckUK”: The evening of the 19th November 2019 saw the first of three Leaders’ Debates on ITV, starting at 8pm and lasting for an hour. Current Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives, Boris Johnson faced off against Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Plenty of people will have been watching the debate live, but a good proportion were “watching” (er, “twitching”?) via Twitter. This is something I’ve done in the past for certain shows. In some cases I just can’t watch or listen, but I can read, and in other cases, the commentary is far more interesting and entertaining than the show itself will ever be. This, for me, is just such a case. But very quickly, all eyes turned upon a modestly sized account with the handle @CCHQPress. That’s short for Conservative Campaign Headquarters Press. According to their (current!) Twitter bio, they are based in Westminster and they provide “snippets of news and commentary from CCHQ” to their 75k followers. That is, until a few minutes into the debate. All at once, like a person throwing off their street clothes to reveal some sinister new identity underneath, @CCHQPress abruptly shed its name, blue Conservative logo, Boris Johnson banner, and bio description. Moments later, it had entirely reinvented itself. The purple banner was emblazoned with white font that read “✓ factcheckUK [with a “FROM CCQH” subheading]”. The matching profile picture was a white tick in a purple circle. The bio was updated to: “Fact checking Labour from CCHQ”. And the name now read factcheckUK, with the customary Twitter blue (or white depending on your phone settings!) validation tick still after it In this example an existing verified social media account on Twitter was repurposed to inauthentically present itself as a Fact Checking service (T0151.008: Microblogging Platform, T0150.003: Pre-Existing Asset, T0146.003: Verified Account Asset, T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona, T0143.002: Fabricated Persona).

Incident

Descriptions given for this incident

I00084 Russia turns its diplomats into disinformation warriors

“[Russia’s social media] reach isn't the same as Russian state media, but they are trying to recreate what RT and Sputnik had done," said one EU official involved in tracking Russian disinformation. "It's a coordinated effort that goes beyond social media and involves specific websites."

“Central to that wider online playbook is a Telegram channel called Warfakes and an affiliated website. Since the beginning of the conflict, that social media channel has garnered more than 725,000 members and repeatedly shares alleged fact-checks aimed at debunking Ukrainian narratives, using language similar to Western-style fact-checking outlets.”

In this example a Telegram channel (T0151.004: Chat Platform, T0155.007: Encrypted Communication Channel) was established which presented itself as a source of fact checks (T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona).

I00120 factcheckUK or fakecheckUK? Reinventing the political faction as the impartial factchecker

Ahead of the 2019 UK Election during a leader’s debate, the Conservative party rebranded their “Conservative Campaign Headquarters Press” account to “FactCheckUK”:

The evening of the 19th November 2019 saw the first of three Leaders’ Debates on ITV, starting at 8pm and lasting for an hour. Current Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives, Boris Johnson faced off against Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Plenty of people will have been watching the debate live, but a good proportion were “watching” (er, “twitching”?) via Twitter. This is something I’ve done in the past for certain shows. In some cases I just can’t watch or listen, but I can read, and in other cases, the commentary is far more interesting and entertaining than the show itself will ever be. This, for me, is just such a case. But very quickly, all eyes turned upon a modestly sized account with the handle @CCHQPress. That’s short for Conservative Campaign Headquarters Press. According to their (current!) Twitter bio, they are based in Westminster and they provide “snippets of news and commentary from CCHQ” to their 75k followers.

That is, until a few minutes into the debate.

All at once, like a person throwing off their street clothes to reveal some sinister new identity underneath, @CCHQPress abruptly shed its name, blue Conservative logo, Boris Johnson banner, and bio description. Moments later, it had entirely reinvented itself.

The purple banner was emblazoned with white font that read “✓ factcheckUK [with a “FROM CCQH” subheading]”.

The matching profile picture was a white tick in a purple circle. The bio was updated to: “Fact checking Labour from CCHQ”. And the name now read factcheckUK, with the customary Twitter blue (or white depending on your phone settings!) validation tick still after it

In this example an existing verified social media account on Twitter was repurposed to inauthentically present itself as a Fact Checking service (T0151.008: Microblogging Platform, T0150.003: Pre-Existing Asset, T0146.003: Verified Account Asset, T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona, T0143.002: Fabricated Persona).

Counters	Response types

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Technique T0097.203: Fact Checking Organisation Persona

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