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Eva Bartlett

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Bartlett in 2014

Eva Karene Bartlett (born 14 June 1977) is an American Canadian activist, journalist, commentator, and blogger who has propagated conspiracy theories in connection to the Syrian civil war,[1][2][3] most notably the disproven allegation that the White Helmets stage rescues and "recycle" children in its videos.[1][4][5][6]

Bartlett describes herself as an "independent writer and rights activist".[4] She writes commentary pieces for Russian state-controlled RT's website.[note 1][8][9] Critics contend that her advocacy amounts to participation in a disinformation campaign aimed at lessening the responsibility of the Assad regime for the acts of indiscriminate killing during the war, and to promote pro-Kremlin content in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[10] Her posts on social media have been tagged with the disclaimer that her writings "may be partially or wholly under the editorial control of the Russian government."[11]

Bartlett has been living in Russia since 2019. She has been making videos and posts on social media from Ukraine during the Russian invasion, sometimes with journalists from RT. She often appears as a guest on RT. She has been criticised for spreading Kremlin propaganda and misinformation.[10][12]

Early life and education

Bartlett was born in the United States and grew up in Canada. She taught English in South Korea after finishing university.[13]

Career

From 2008, Bartlett was a pro-Palestinian campaigner with the International Solidarity Movement, making trips to Gaza, reporting and commenting on her blog, and going on speaking tours in North America.[14][15][16][4] Since then, she has commented on the Syrian civil war, and has travelled to Syria six times prior to 2017.[2]

Syrian civil war viral disinformation video

See also: "Crisis actor" as a conspiracy theory motif

In late 2016, Bartlett generated controversy over a video on a Russian-funded web channel that went viral, in which she said that Syrians "overwhelmingly support" Bashar al-Assad, as evidenced by the results of the 2014 election, an election widely denounced, e.g. by the European Union, as an illegitimate sham.[17][18][5][19]

She has characterized the White Helmets as being part of a Western propaganda campaign,[20] alleging that rescues by that organization are hoaxes whereby they "recycle" the same children in footage of staged rescues,[17][18][21] and that "no one in eastern Aleppo has heard of [the White Helmets]".[17] In the same video, Bartlett falsely claimed that the al-Quds Hospital bombing in April 2016, where 55 died, never occurred, saying it was rebel propaganda.[5][22] Bartlett's claims were amplified by Russian-controlled outlets such as RT, Sputnik News and In The Now.[23][17] The claims were found to be false by Channel 4 News and Snopes.[1][4][5][6] The broader "same girl" internet meme has been categorized as a derivation of the "crisis actor" conspiracy theories.[24] The video presented Bartlett as an independent journalist speaking to the United Nations when in fact the event was staged by the Syrian government.[25]

In 2017, Bartlett was rebuked by The Syria Campaign, an advocacy group that campaigns on behalf of the White Helmets.[26] Relying on research done by the social media intelligence company Graphika, it released a report alleging a Russian disinformation campaign in the Syrian Civil War, according to which Bartlett was part of a network seeking to discredit the White Helmets in order to minimise war crimes committed by the Assad regime.[27][28] According to the publication, YouTube had removed several videos of Bartlett because they were on "accounts linked to Russian disinformation".[27] An equal characterization of Bartlett's activity has been made in a 2017 report on the situation in Aleppo, by the American think-tank Atlantic Council.[8][23]

According to Janine di Giovanni in The New York Review of Books, Bartlett is a core member of a group of "Assad’s Western apologists", alongside Vanessa Beeley, Sharmine Narwani, and Max Blumenthal; their work is disseminated by a "spectrum of far-left, anti-West conspiracy theorists; anti-Semites; supporters of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah; libertarians; and far-right groups".[29]

Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in 2022 identified Bartlett as a member of a network of social media accounts, individuals, outlets and organisations who disseminated disinformation about the Syria conflict, noting that one video featuring her had been viewed 4.5 million times on Facebook.[30] Coda Story noted that by March 2022 the different versions of the video had been viewed 10 million times.[31]

North Korea trip

Bartlett went[note 2] to North Korea in 2017 alongside Tim Anderson, and said that western media coverage of the country is aimed to "detract from America’s past and current crimes against the Korean people, and to garner support for yet another American-led slaughter of innocent people".[16][32]

Ukraine

In 2022, Bartlett spent time in Ukraine, reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine from a pro-Russian perspective, sometimes with journalists from Russian state-owned channel Russia Today.[33][34] The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) identified her as one of the twelve key Western influencers spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation about the Russo-Ukrainian War. Bartlett is not directly employed by RT, although she has regularly written op-eds on RT’s website, makes videos with RT correspondents and shares RT content. Facebook has labeled her posts with a disclaimer that she “may be partially or wholly under the editorial control of the Russian government.”[10][35] In July 2022, she was a speaker at the Russian-organised International Public Tribunal on Ukraine in Moscow, which aimed to "collect data and prove the commission of war crimes by the Kyiv regime".[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Bartlett's articles are published in the website's section styled Op-ed (previously Op-edge).[7]
  2. ^ An article in HuffPost said the trip was "regime-sponsored".[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Solon, Olivia (18 December 2017). "How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  2. ^ a b Reilly, Emma (22 January 2017). "Controversial freelance journalist to deliver lectures on Syria in Hamilton". The Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  3. ^ Worrall, Patrick (20 December 2016). "FactCheck: Eva Bartlett's claims about Syrian children". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d "FactCheck: Eva Bartlett's claims about Syrian children". Channel 4 News. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d "Syrian War Victims Are Being 'Recycled' and Al Quds Hospital Was Never Bombed?". Snopes. 14 December 2016. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021.
  6. ^ a b Robins-Early, Nick (10 January 2017). "5 Major Myths About Syria Debunked". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  7. ^ Pomerantsev, Peter (22 December 2013). "The Kremlin's attempt at soft power is back-to-front". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021. ... [RT's] Op-Edge segment. RT insists the ideas are those of the pundits rather than its own – but the message is consistently similar.
  8. ^ a b "Analysis | As the dust on an information war settles, the truth about the battle for Aleppo". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  9. ^ "Why small groups of Western tourists are flocking to Syria". Newsweek. 5 April 2018. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  10. ^ a b c Emma, Vardy (22 April 2022). "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  11. ^ "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. 8 June 2022.
  12. ^ a b "In Russia, a 'sham tribunal' investigates what it says are Ukraine's war crimes - CBC News". CBC. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  13. ^ "Gaza Under Siege – Eva Bartlett on Reality Asserts Itself (1/2)". The Real News Network. 5 October 2014. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  14. ^ Intrigue Ep4: Mayday - Hoax Producers (Podcast). 9 November 2020. Event occurs at 15:11. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  15. ^ Weaver, Matthew (19 January 2009). "'On the blogs: Gaza assesses the devastation". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  16. ^ a b c "'Whitewashing War Crimes': How UK Academics Promote Pro-Assad Conspiracy Theories About Syria". HuffPost UK. 19 April 2018. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  17. ^ a b c d Daro, Ishmael N. (16 December 2016). "This Quirky New Viral Video Channel Is Funded By The Russian Government". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  18. ^ a b "Den här Facebooksidan sponsras egentligen av den ryska staten" [This Facebook page is actually sponsored by the Russian state]. Metro (in Swedish). 30 January 2017. Archived from the original on 9 August 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  19. ^ Kalam, Ahnaf (16 December 2016). "Exposing the Apologetics for Assad and Putin". Areo. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  20. ^ Norris, Sian (30 March 2022). "Disinformation and Deceit: How Russia Attacked Western Democracy – Byline Times". Byline Times. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  21. ^ "Fausses images et propagande de la bataille d'Alep" [False images and propaganda of the battle of Aleppo]. Le Monde.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  22. ^ "The last doctor out of eastern Aleppo: "You can't just turn your back and walk away"". www.newstatesman.com. 2 November 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  23. ^ a b "Atlantic Council - Breaking Aleppo – Breaking Aleppo". www.publications.atlanticcouncil.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  24. ^ LaCapria, Kim (26 December 2016). "Did CNN Use the Same Girl in Three Different Refugee Crisis Pictures?". www.snopes.com. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  25. ^ Ahmad, Idrees; Campbell, Iain (22 March 2022). "How Russia's Disinformation Apparatus Ran Aground in Ukraine – Byline Times". Byline Times. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  26. ^ "Support the White Helmets". The Syria Campaign. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  27. ^ a b "Killing The Truth". The Syria Diary. Archived from the original on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  28. ^ Reuter, Christoph (21 December 2017). "Desinformation als Kriegswaffe: Russlands perfider Feldzug gegen die Wahrheit" [Disinformation as a weapon of war: Russia's perfidious campaign against the truth]. Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  29. ^ Di Giovanni, Janine (16 October 2018). "Why Assad and Russia Target the White Helmets". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  30. ^ Townsend, Mark (19 June 2022). "Network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified – study". the Guardian. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  31. ^ Amine, Rayan El (4 November 2022). "Syria rolls out the red carpet for influencers and friendly foreigners, while local reporters face death and prison". Coda Story. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  32. ^ "Academic praises Kim Jong-Un's North Korea during visit". Queensland Times. 5 September 2017. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  33. ^ "Eva K Bartlett - YouTube". Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  34. ^ "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. 8 June 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  35. ^ Gilbert, David (9 June 2022). "Meet the US 'Journalist' Helping Spread the Kremlin's Propaganda". VICE. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
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