The shit-posting, dog deploying social media army taking on Putin one meme at a time.

[Tomconroy]

NAFO: The North Atlantic Fellas Organization

The group — which includes ordinary foot soldiers like Stradner, as well as political heavyweights like U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and, as of this week, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov — uses as its weapon of choice a badly-drawn image of Shiba Inu, the Japanese dog breed that became an internet sensation a decade ago and is referred to as a “doge” in internet culture.

NAFO “fellas,” as they prefer to be called, emblazon their Twitter accounts with the Shiba Inu avatar. They overlay the image on TikTok-style videos of Ukrainian troops set to dance music soundtracks. They pile onto Russian propaganda via coordinated social media attacks that rely on humor — it’s hard to take a badly-drawn dog meme seriously — to poke fun at the Kremlin and undermine its online messaging.

Whenever a NAFO fellas spots a Russian official or sympathizer posting a pro-Kremlin take on Twitter, for instance, they can use the hashtag #Article5 — a nod to the part of the NATO treaty that calls for collective defense — to bombard these accounts with support for Ukraine. They’ve also flooded Twitter with viral memes attacking Russian President Vladimir Putin and videos mocking the Kremlin’s war effort. On an average day, there are now more than 5,000 Twitter posts linked to NAFO versus a mere handful in May, according to an analysis shared with POLITICO by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online activity.

The coordinated shit-posting is ultimately deployed in the service of Kyiv’s war effort. NAFO started in late May as an online fundraising tool for Ukrainian troops. Anyone who donates money via PayPal (NAFO never touches the actual cash) to groups like the Georgian Legion, a military unit created soon after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, can ask the group for their own doge avatar.

https://www.politico.eu/article/nafo-doge-shiba-russia-putin-ukraine-twitter-trolling-social-media-meme/

Don't be a Vatnik. Be a Fella!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Mmmm...this article didn't mention the founder's vile antisemitic tweets from two years ago.

Ah, I see now it's because the article from August, and a thread compiling the tweets came out a couple weeks ago. If you try to click on Kama's name in the article, you'll find he's protected his Twitter account, and that's why.

[Tomconroy]

2. There is no founder.

And there is no anti semitism. Period.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. "Starter by accident," then.

The 27-year-old Pole (whose last name POLITICO is not disclosing for security reasons) gets up at 5 a.m., opens his Twitter account and gets to work on creating Shiba Inu avatars, selling NAFO merchandise — everything from doge-inspired T-shirts and mugs to hoodies and badges — and coordinating an online movement that he started by accident.

[Tomconroy]

4. Started spontaneously.

You are gone.

[Tomconroy]

5. I don't know if it's still up because I blocked what I regard as a troll post.

Putin calls the Ukraine government Nazis. Russian bots denounced the Azov heros of Mauripol anti-Semites. This is the first time I've seen anyone try to smear NAFO as anti semitic that I know of. It's all a Putin trope. The elected President of Ukraine is Jewish.
I've been shit posting Russian bots for months and happily requested a NAFO meme yesterday.
Don't be a Votnik. Be a Fella.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. I know you've blocked, but I'm going to respond anyway

This is the first time I've seen anyone try to smear NAFO as anti semitic that I know of.

I didn't say NAFO was anti-Semitic. I said the founder -- who is described as the "starter by accident" in the article and who spends most of his day making Fellas and overseeing a staff of more than 30 people -- has posted anti-Semitic (and pro-Rittenhouse, among other things) tweets. Many fellas say say that doesn't bother them, which makes sense -- participating in a uniting cultural iconography is fun, especially when it comes to war, and like all good propaganda, it's certainly gotten results, as outlined in the article.