Over the last week, a number of Russian accounts have been tweeting memes of a girl from Aleppo at a Syrian journalist. Let's discuss how we got here:
The Syrian girl is Bana Alabed — an 8-year-old who became widely followed online after she started tweeting from Aleppo during the government siege of the city last year.
Good afternoon from #Aleppo I'm reading to forget the war.
After her story went viral, Bana and her mother (who runs the account) were interviewed by a number of international media outlets. Her family has now been granted asylum in Turkey, but she still tweets about the situation in Syria.
Bana has often been trolled by pro-Assad Syrian and Russian Twitter accounts, as well as by some Russian media outlets. Her images are frequently shared, usually without her knowledge or consent.
Syrian journalist Leith Abou Fadel is among those who have tweeted about Bana. He's also been on her case for a while.
So the real reason why Bana was not transported to safety sooner was because her father was one of the rebels....go… https://t.co/d1sVx1owys
Fadel is an editor of the pro-Assad news outlet Al-Masdar, which earlier this year promoted a hoax that the Assad government was not responsible for the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack, Business Insider reported. The website has also published stories attempting to discredit Bana in the past.
Fadel has also tweeted about Russian intervention in Syria before, mostly with a positive slant:
As a result, he’s been on the radar of a number of Russian accounts, including @Antikaratel, who has been tweeting — almost entirely without response — at Fadel since November 2015.
Anyway, last week, Fadel tweeted that US Sen. John McCain would visit Venezuela to support the “Free Venezuela Army,” after condemning the situation in the country.
Free Venezuelan Army...John McCain will be visiting Venezuela soon. "We need to give the heroes fighting there patr… https://t.co/28ICdTsQAC
Two things: 1) This was a thin joke on the Free Syrian Army, one of a number of rebel groups operating in Syria. 2) The group (among others) was armed by the US, under the Obama administration.
Also, in case you haven't been following: Venezuela is currently in a state of chaos, both politically and economically.
A number of smaller left-wing accounts, had tweeted about a Venezuelan “Baña” prior to this message. But they’d had little pickup.
That changed after @Antikaratel’s tweet, which prompted a bunch of pro-Russia accounts to start using Bana’s image.
Профессиональная потерпевшая девочка Бана теперь в Венесуэле.
Caption: "Professional victim girl Bana now in Venezuela."
Dear D.Trump my name is Buanita Bana I'm a 7 years old little girl from Caracas...please save the children of Syr..… https://t.co/zFLh1hZNQu
7-year-old Venezuelan girl, Bana tweets support for President Trump's airstrikes. #Venezuela
Cant let a good trick go to waste! Thank you @sarahabed84 . #Bana. #Syria #Venezuela.
Which is how the image of a Syrian girl from Aleppo who escaped to Turkey traveled across the Atlantic to be used by Russian trolls who are mocking the suggestion that the US is intervening in Venezuela.
