Something smelling fishy? Matt Hancock’s government department seems to have hijacked images of NHS staff to create fake accounts that push lies and propaganda.
How much of this are you going to accept before demanding an end to the deceptions?
Now it seems the Department of Health has created hundreds of fake Twitter accounts, claiming to belong to NHS staff, in order to broadcast support for the government.
If true, this is pure propaganda; your government lying to you about the views of NHS staff.
The scam was cracked by John O’Connell on Twitter:
Can you confirm that '@nhs_susan' here is a creation of the DHSC Communications Team, and not in fact, one of your hardworking staff at the Starfish Ward ?
Can you ask your staff member what she thinks of her image being used for automated #Tories Propaganda ? pic.twitter.com/ZKGeo2uqml
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 17, 2020
While the fake account didn’t seem particularly clear on its facts…
The fake account thinks that Johnson's published words are "conjecture" and "speculation". pic.twitter.com/HjmCbcXa1Q
— Steve Peers (@StevePeers) April 18, 2020
… we discovered that the real ‘NHS Susan’ is a nurse from Greece:
It appears that @nhs_susan – one of many fake NHS staff accounts uncovered by @jdpoc & seemingly set up at the govt's behest – used the photo of Mia Magklavani, a paediatrics staff nurse from Greece.
Staggering but very familiar dishonesty & manipulation.https://t.co/noLmtdH2vw pic.twitter.com/VGhtPOME5j
— Tom Scott (@Tom___Scott) April 20, 2020
It seems Mr O’Connell then discovered a further 127 fake NHS staff accounts. Here’s his Twitter thread about his findings:
The one person has been identified.
Despite the @DHSCgovuk reply to my queries of 'no comment' (and that's all she wrote), that person is a contracted Government employee temporarily assigned to this department.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
.@DHSCgovuk are adopting a corporate 'head in the sand' 'fingers in the ears' approach to this matter, hoping it will be swept aside by ongoing news stories of a more serious nature.
After all, who cares about industrial scale misinformation in the face of so many deaths? pic.twitter.com/TBHJQcpDJy
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Addendum :
I quoted "28 fake #NHS Staff accounts" for clarity.
In actuality, there are 128 confirmed, 9 probables and 14 possibles, and amongst those, there are 16 which do not claim an #NHS connection.
43 accounts use actual photos of actual NHS staff.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Addendum : (again, sorry)
The accounts have now mostly gone, not suspended by Twitter but deleted by the account holder(s) in one simultaneous mass cull a few days ago … At the click of a button.
Which itself, goes to prove the singular control of all the accounts.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Further Addemdum:
When we state 'DHSC', to clarify, this is either directly, or indirectly via a ''Marketing Agency'' set up a few months ago with one client (guess who) and three staff (all ex DHSC). A poor attempt at deniability.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Additional :
DHSC and various NHS Trusts seem to show no interest in the welfare of the genuine staff members who's identities have been lifted and used for Government Propaganda.
Surely 'Duty of Care' comes into it?
No interest in the data when I offered.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
A reminder ; DHSC were fairly offered an opportunity by me, via email and telecon, to address these issues. A chance to 'get ahead' of the story. I was duty bound to offer that to them.
It was dismissed out of hand.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
ADDED : I have since asked DHSC for further comment. No reply as yet.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Further …
This is not new. The methods, the technology, the tools, all used before by the various #Brexit Campaigns.
What's different here is the scale, and almost certain Government Department involvement, either officially or 'under the radar'.
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
Cont …
In addition, I recall well how the whistleblower for the Cambridge Analytica scandal was crucified, publicly. I seek to avoid that, as you can imagine.
We, as a team, need to do more work and take legal advice. We do this in our spare time (we all have jobs, mostly)
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) April 20, 2020
The Department of Health and Social Care has responded robustly…
These claims are categorically false.
To share disinformation of this kind undermines the national effort against coronavirus.
Before anyone shares unsubstantiated claims online, use the SHARE checklist to help stop the spread of harmful content:
➡️https://t.co/rdfG1BuY7Q pic.twitter.com/Ydlx2qyKkB— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 20, 2020
… but unconvincingly. Remember that the Tories changed their own publicity account’s name to “FactCheckUK” during last year’s election campaign, dishonestly impersonating a genuine fact-checking service to lie about the Labour party.
And why would anybody use a government website to check whether content is harmful, when it’s the government that is accused of creating it?
The danger is that the Tory government is undermining trust in the institutions we need to be able to trust. It is deadly dangerous – but the Tories are playing the fool.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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They’re lying to us, silencing us, killing us. And I feel so bloody useless
I suspect Dominic Cummings may be the driving force behind all this propaganda
Very well done John O’Connell for all your time and effort. What would we do without people like yourself and Mike. With a very few notable exceptions, we cannot rely on any MSM ‘journalists’ these days to dig for the truth under all the spin and propaganda.
Releasing photographs of NHS staff in this manner must surely be an offence under Duty of Care, etc. Or possibly they were duped into agreeing to this…
The mass deletion is indeed a huge giveaway. Whoever is responsible haven’t even the brains to have thought that out!
I have to say the Government ‘advice’ at the end did raise a cynical laugh – “use the SHARE checklist….”. Sure, of course we will and believe every word we read there!
Bloody despicable that in these times when people are actually sacrificing their lives and the government can’t even provide sufficient PPE for frontline staff, they are using resources for stuff like this.
PS This is mentioned in some of the comments on The Guardian’s live feed (nothing from the The Guardian itself as far as I can see of course) and one of the links has a larger photograph of ‘Susan’ – her name badge clearly says ‘Mia’ which of course I can now see above!!!
Devious underhand tricks from a devious underhand Government. Outrageous.
Not remotely surprised because the fascist tories know producing lies as ‘facts’ ensures the public believe them! DHSS now department of lies and propaganda! And the increasing demands to ‘open up country’ is emanating from the fascist tories because they’re getting their big boys knickers in a twist over the huge sums of money they are losing due to commercial businesses not being open!
Never mind that state instigated murder of thousands and thousands of women and men continues to happen – ‘get the big businesses open again is the fascist tory cry!’
Criminal are the actions of the puppets at the DHSS who are acting under the direct orders of dictator boris and his male fascist tory cronies! Democracy???? What democracy given we are now living in a fascist dictatorship!
I’ve told you about Big Tobacco but you didn’t respond and there’s this ‘Matt Hancock is the owner of Supply Chain Coordination Limited holds 21,000,001 shares in the company BAT bankrolling anti-NHS think tank whose bosses donate thousands to Tory leadership contenders https://independent.co.uk/news/health/big-tobacco-funding-conservatives-nhs-hancock-raab-davis-a8916561.html……
Its all gone insane.
We have had the Army here on the Isle Of Wight, have you seen our lovely new beds? Looks like they where from the second world war stock.
https://www.islandecho.co.uk/army-leave-the-island-as-field-hospital-at-st-marys-is-completed/