A Twitter account active in the name of @BattlementLK opened in April 2022 has opened a front to counter Western propaganda against China, Russia, Iran, Sri Lanka, and other “allied” countries. Its name suggests it’s either being operated from Sri Lanka or by Sri Lankans stationed abroad or by China-based propaganda armies.
The motto written on the homepage of the account is: “Anti-imperialist | Reporting the truth on Sri Lanka’s color revolution”. The account shows the Sri Lankan flag on its profile.
Twitter Profile of @BattlementLK
In recent years after China invested heavily in the Island country, Beijing has been accused of influencing Sri Lankan media and public opinion in its “favour”, even allegedly through coercive means.
Survey and Analysis of Some of the Recent Tweets
The first tweet (thread) that introduces the account to social media users shows Russian President Vladimir Putin signing a bill into law prohibiting movies, advertisements, publications and sale of material that promotes LGBTQ ideology.
It shows that 6,882 Twitter followers re-tweeted this tweet.
Source: Twitter
Similarly, a tweet posted on February 21 was also about the Russian President mocking West on its cultural practices. The tweet with a picture showing a “drag queen” with children reads: “Look at what the West is doing with its own people, destruction of family; perversion and even pedophilia are now declared the norm Millions in the West understand they are being led to spiritual catastrophe – President Putin”.
Source: Twitter
Russia since the onset of the Ukraine War has gone belligerent in its attack on certain aspects of the Western culture and society like campaigns for the rights of the LGBTQ community, “lax” laws against tackling cases of pedophilia, and no open restrictions on pornography.
Floods of Tweets on 3 Days and Their Analysis
Below is the graph depicting the tweets timeline of the account, it is seen that in 3 days, a very high number of tweets were done by the account. 97 tweets were done on 27th September 2022, 56 tweets on 19th October 2022, and 55 tweets were done on 18th Jan 2023.
Tweets timeline of @BattlementLK
September 27, 2022
On this day, the handle made 97 tweets, its maximum in a single day. All dealt with China policies in Sri Lanka, attacks on the West & US, and defense of Russian policies in the Ukraine War.
The first tweet on the timeline is a video on purportedly huge pro-government protests in Iran. It doesn’t recognize the location of the protests.
Source: Twitter
The post signals that the handle doesn’t only propagate policies of Russia and China, it defends friendly regimes like those in Iran and Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.
In another tweet on the same day, the handles replies to a tweet of UK High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sarah Hulton (@SarahHultonFCDO), who shared news of the UK offering “£3 million humanitarian package for Sri Lanka to provide vital support”.
The tweet carries the comment: “The needy helping the needy. So wholesome (weeping emoji).”
Source: Twitter
Many more tweets are mocking US and Western policies towards tackling the Sri Lanka financial crisis. In these tweets, even the language turns filthy, suggesting that the handle is being handled by mercenaries out to trash West, US and support the Russian and Chinese causes.
Source: Twitter
October 19, 2022
Replying to @Goshitha5 and @cjdrox, the handle says: “Sure. Can you share China, Russia and Sri Lanka’s equivalent to this?” The tweet accompanies a picture listing US military interventions in various countries, starting with the Korean War in 1953.
Source: Twitter
Another tweet on the same date is about USAID-linked organization Media Empowerment for a Democratic Sri Lanka (MEND) purportedly attempting to build a case for an IMF bailout for Sri Lanka. It reads like this: “USAID’s propaganda arm MEND running sponsored ads on Facebook and Instagram to manufacture consent on Sri Lanka’s IMF program.”
Source: Twitter
January 18, 2023
On this day, the handle made 55 tweets and they all followed the same theme as followed by the handle throughout.
The first tweet on the timeline is a video that shows protesters throwing some unidentified liquid on Sri Lankan police. It reads: “Sri Lankan police getting assaulted by separatists. The ‘tyrannical regime’ Western media loves to talk about.
Imagine what the response of the cops would have been if this happened in the United States.”
Source: Twitter
Another tweet on the timeline makes fun of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressing the World Economy Forum at Davos via video-conferencing. It interestingly shares a picture of the Indian website monycontrol.com. The tweet reads: “Liberals: ‘We hate Nazis’. Also Liberals: ‘We let King Nazi call the shots where we make decisions about humanity’s fate.’”
Source: Twitter
‘China Connection’
Hu Wei, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka met prominent Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, Malwathu Mahanayake, in January 2023. The embassy tweeted a thread about this meeting with the caption: “The Chinese government and people strongly oppose any foreign country to receive the Dalai Lama in any name, because the 14th Dalai Lama is absolutely not a ‘simple monk’ as he self-claimed.”
The handle quote-tweeted this thread with a hard-hitting caption: “Dalai Lama is US State Department”.
Source: Twitter
Another part of the thread says that the Dalai Lama title was coined and conferred by the Chinese monarch, and that “The 14th Dalai Lama is a political exile disguised as a religious figure who has long been engaging in anti-China separatist activities and attempting to split Tibet from China.”
Source: Twitter
Anti-India Propaganda
A salvo of tweets fired from the handle targets India, the pattern noted in these tweets is that they portray China as a superior civilization and nation as compared to India.
One Tweet on October 7, 2022, reads: “India is not the next China. India is what China would have become if China failed.”
Source: Twitter
Another tweet on November 11, 2022, calls India being hegemonic despite having no means, and China having zero ambition to become a world hegemon. Its exact text is: “China has all the means but zero hegemonic goals. India has zero means but all the hegemonic goals.”
Source: Twitter
The tweet on November 21, 2022, unequivocally declares that India will never catch up to China in terms of growth. It reads: “Why India will never catch up to China?”
A video interview of business analyst Jayant Bhandari is attached to the tweet where he is saying that India projects its growth rate in a flawed manner to hoodwink public perception and that he won’t see India becoming equivalent to China even in the time of his grandchildren.
Source: Twitter
One tweet made on November 22, 2022, makes fun of India as being the biggest begging beneficiary of aid from the US Agency on International Fund (USAID) that provides humanitarian and relief assistance worldwide. The tweet reads: “Speaking of begging USAID’s biggest beneficiary is India (laugh emojis).”
Source: Twitter
CONCLUSION:
Based on this random but deep survey of the information shared by the @BattlementLK, it can be concluded that the handle is being run by Chinese-Russian (most likely by Chinese) social media mercenaries deployed probably in Sri Lanka to counter the Western propaganda with their own. They even don’t shy away from sharing Indian information sources to float their viewpoint.
