What are disinformation campaigns?
A coordinated and systematic effort to spread misleading information across various publishing channels.

Selection Criteria

• The presence of deliberate and organized disinformation around a specific topic at a particular time, aiming to promote a false narrative.
• The existence of an actor behind the campaign providing financial and/or technical support.
• The presence of a network operating in a coordinated manner to amplify misleading information.
• The campaign is either time-bound or has a sustained impact.
• It concerns Arab audiences or relates to Arab issues.
• New findings can be uncovered through investigative work on the campaign.
• The campaign is large in scale with a broad target audience.
• Exposing the campaign serves the public interest rather than benefiting one party over another.

Indicators of a Disinformation Campaign

1. Timing and Location

• Noticeable spikes in activity at specific times.
• Why is the campaign happening at this particular time?
• Which countries is the campaign originating from?

2. Publishing Patterns

• Interaction patterns: Are posts original or reshared?

3. Content Analysis

• Do campaign messages use similar wording?
• What emotions dominate the content?

4. Engaged Accounts

• The Account That Initiated the Hashtag
  It is essential to identify the account that launched the hashtag or campaign, analyze its ideology, and determine whether it has previously initiated similar campaigns. Its background, relationships, and affiliations should also be examined using tools for tracking individuals and facial analysis.

• Most Engaged Accounts
  Compile a list of the most active accounts engaging with the hashtag. Analyze their orientations and connections. Accounts promoting the same hashtag often share relationships or, even if ideologically different, converge on a common mobilization goal.

  Tools like Talkwalker can help identify the most engaged accounts, though network analysis requires more advanced steps.

Network Analysis
By analyzing these networks, patterns of influence and coordination can be identified, such as groups of accounts working together to promote specific content or key accounts that play a central role in amplifying messages.

A network can be constructed by creating a dataset that includes accounts generating campaign-related content (nodes) and another set representing interactions between content creators and engaged accounts (edges).

This approach allows statistical analysis of network centrality. The more centralized the network, the stronger the indication of coordinated amplification.