Important to keep an eye on - who can we identify in Auckland?

In this year's local government elections, all kinds of people are running. But some of them aren't necessarily who they seem. Charlie Mitchell sets out how the "freedom movement" - riddled with conspiracy theory - is organising, on the down-low: www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3607... 1/

In this year's local government elections, all kinds of people are running. But some of them aren't necessarily who they seem. Charlie Mitchell sets out how the "freedom movement" - riddled with conspiracy theory - is organising, on the down-low: www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3607... 1/

Voices For Freedom have just emailed their members urging them to stand in local body elections. Although they do want members to stand in contested seats, this call for action is specifically to seek out uncontested seats. 1/

Voices For Freedom have just emailed their members urging them to stand in local body elections. Although they do want members to stand in contested seats, this call for action is specifically to seek out uncontested seats. 1/

Studied VFF's handbook for the upcoming local govt election. Unaware of any mainstream political party that's done a comparable production to mobilise partisans. A far-right, white supremacist ideological signalling is written into handbook which weaponises democratic processes against democracy.

Hey, so you were looking for something to do over the long weekend - how about taking 15 minutes to bash out a quick submission to the Royal Commission. Submissions close on Sunday. haveyoursay.covid19lessons.royalcommission.nz/royal-commis...

🧵If you want to support Internet NZ now would be the time. The framing of this as "censorship" is a reactionary emotive catchcry by oppositional parties. Bully from within tactics do not equate to civil discussion.... www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

This story is concerning 👀 www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

This story is concerning 👀 www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

The Royal Commission into COVID 19 Lessons Learned has opened submissions for their next phase. They say “we want to hear from you on how certain key Government decisions affected or changed your lives during the pandemic.” 🧵

Just a reminder that with the commission asking for New Zealanders stories on the topic of "vaccine safety", I wrote the article in Newsroom for this exact day, pre-emptively debunking the claims that will be written by the fringe. newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/06/t...

You’re probably a pretty smart person. And you might look at conspiracy theorists’ more out-there ideas and think: “how does anyone ever fall for that?” 🧵

Excellent thread. I've had the furry litter box story recounted to me as fact!

Stories are how we make sense of the world around us. Stories are what turns a bunch of names and events and numbers into something we can understand. Stories are a really important part of spreading conspiracy theories. 🧵

A few weeks ago, FACT Aotearoa was at DECULT, a conference which brought together experts on cults and high control organisations, including many former members of cults. FACT member Byron was there. Here's his report: factaotearoa.nz/a-report-fro...

Antivax group “New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science” recent conference has got us thinking about how conspiracy theorists and antivax campaigners use (and abuse) “experts” to make their ideas seem more credible. So how does it work? 🧵

This week an antivax group called “New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out With Science” is holding a conference to "challenge prevailing health narratives". So we've been thinking about how conspiracy theorists form groups to look more credible. How does it work? 🧵

On Friday Newsroom published David Hood’s analysis of whether NZ had excess deaths from COVID vaccination. We think this is really important as the second phase of the COVID commission of enquiry gets closer. 🧵

Heads up: we're on Tiktok and Instagram now! If you get a follow or see content from Insta @ factaotearoa or Tiktok @ fact.aotearoa, yes it's us. We're gearing up for some short form video coming soon...

We know that conspiracy theory groups actively recruit members. But how does that work? It turns out it looks more like a sales process than you might think. As Reality Check Radio advises: slide someone from A to Z one pink pill at a time. 🧵

Almost everyone knows someone who has been swept into social media algorithms, down a rabbit hole into conspiratorial beliefs. But have you ever wondered how conspiracy theory groups recruit people into those beliefs? 🧵

Almost everyone knows someone who has been swept into social media algorithms, down a rabbit hole into conspiratorial beliefs. But have you ever wondered how conspiracy theory groups recruit people into those beliefs? 🧵

Would you like to take a trip to the Mirror World? Voices For Freedom outlet Reality Check Radio are offering to take us there when they interview Michael Benz aka white supremacist “Frame Game” on Wednesday. 1/

Would you like to take a trip to the Mirror World? Voices For Freedom outlet Reality Check Radio are offering to take us there when they interview Michael Benz aka white supremacist “Frame Game” on Wednesday. 1/

FACT Aotearoa isn't surprised by the disappearance of the Voices For Freedom-backed radio station Reality Check Radio, sometimes referred to as “Rabbit Hole Radio”. In spite of their attempts to portray their audience as substantial, VFF now say “we need funding to continue”. 1/

The Royal Commission into COVID19 lessons learned has called for submissions and they're due March 24th. Maybe you haven’t go around to it yet? 1/

The Royal Commission into COVID19 lessons learned has called for submissions and they're due March 24th. Maybe you haven’t go around to it yet? 1/

Voices For Freedom has just sent their members an URGENT ACTION email, telling them to submit on the COVID19 commission of inquiry’s terms of reference. Why? 1/

FACT Aotearoa is calling on Government Ministers including the Deputy Prime Minister who have appeared on Reality Check Radio to boycott the platform. 1/8

Out there in conspiracy theory land, some people are looking at a poorly calculated PDF of potential money paid to vaccine centres and claiming they are “mind-blowing” figures. They want you to think something underhand is going on.

MOAR Problems: the misinformation techniques 🧵 Dubbed the “Mother of All Revelations*”, the data leak from Barry Young did reveal something. The leak is not just a gross breach of ethics and privacy, and misleading statistical “analysis”. bsky.app/profile/fact... /1

This week we saw Barry Young, a Te Whatu Ora database administrator, arrested and charged after allegedly taking confidential patient data and leaking it.

A FACT member had a look through the fun-house mirror at selectively-edited documentary River of Freedom. Are we watching the re-write of history? factaotearoa.nz/river-of-fre...

This election is already bringing challenges for journalists in New Zealand. Our fringe parties are fired up and begging for attention. Many have supporters that are creating astroturf groups to try to draw more attention to their causes and their candidates.

FACT Aotearoa is concerned that groups associated with conspiracy theory beliefs are strategically infiltrating NZ’s mainstream political parties. “Entryism” is a strategy for small groups to achieve their aims by taking over larger groups from the inside. www.1news.co.nz/2023/08/23/a...