DISINFO: Twitter campaign against Evo Morales may be run by the CIA
SUMMARY
The same day of the coup against Evo Morales, thousands of automatised Twitter accounts with none, or just one follower, started promoting the hashtag #BoliviaNoHayGolpe (#BoliviaThereIsNoCoup). The hashtag wasn’t generated in a region with a strong Bolivian community but in the US state of Virginia, home of the CIA, which may point to its involvement.
RESPONSE
Though the existence of automatised bots and false accounts involved in the situation in Bolivia has been proven, the second part of the story is not true. The whole report is based on a tweet by US journalist Alan MacLeod, who pointed out that the hashtag #BoliviaNoHayGolpe (#BoliviaThereIsNoCoup) was "trending in Virginia, home of the CIA". But while he said in a subsequent tweet that there is a strong Bolivian community living in Arlington (indeed, one of the biggest in the US), which may easily explain the Twitter trend, RT ignored it and decided instead to push these allegations to promote its narrative of a US-backed coup in Bolivia. It is highly unlikely that a covert campaign carried out by a professional intelligence service could be so easily traced to its geographical origin. The story also falls within the broader pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative attempting to deny the existence of genuine grass-root protests, portraying them as foreign-led efforts and fake colour revolutions. You can see other examples of disinformation cases such as a US hybrid war against Bolivia, the recruitment of its security services or the application in the country of the lessons learnt in Venezuela. Read the statement by the EU High Representative/Vice President Federica Mogherini on the situation in Bolivia here.