Amid Middle East escalation, disinformation campaign targeting Armenian PM intensifies with fake Dubai property claims
Several suspicious accounts have spread disinformation using the logos of reputable media outlets to target Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his spokesperson warned on Wednesday.
The X accounts posted fabricated images featuring Al Jazeera and Euronews logos, along with Pashinyan’s photo, to falsely claim that the Prime Minister owns real estate in the UAE, which sustained damage in the recent strikes.
Pashinyan’s spokesperson described the fake news as a classic case of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7.
According to the false story, a recent bombing in Dubai had damaged Pashinyan’s property. Pashinyan’s spokesperson, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, denied the report, stating that the Armenian Prime Minister does not own any real estate in the UAE or in any other country.
“In recent days, videos have been circulating on the X platform by suspicious accounts, allegedly citing Al Jazeera and Euronews, claiming that property belonging to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was damaged in Dubai as a result of missile strikes. I hereby declare that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan does not own any property in the UAE or in any other country. All numbers and ‘values’ presented in these videos, as well as the statements attributed to me on behalf of the Prime Minister, are entirely fabricated and do not correspond to reality. In this pre-election period, we are witnessing a classic case of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, in which several characteristic tools are used: false attribution to reputable international media outlets (Al Jazeera, Euronews) to give the material a false impression of credibility. As always, simultaneous dissemination of similar content from multiple anonymous accounts, and accelerated spread through bot and semi-bot networks, is used to give the topic an artificial ‘momentum.’ In recent days, we have recorded a systematic activation: massive repetition of the same texts, same phrasing, and synchronized comments, which indicates coordinated information interference,” Baghdasaryan said on social media.
