The unsolicited tweets started appearing on timelines over the past week. No Web site, company or person is publicly associated with the accounts, but the message Twitter is being paid to promote and spread is clear: Qatar is an unsuitable host of the 2022 World Cup.
Twitter is cashing in from anonymous attacks on Qatar just as it faces scrutiny over the limited disclosure of information about political advertising in last year’s US election.
However, the Twitter users who received the posts accusing Qatar of supporting extremism alongside images of World Cup preparations offered no indication of the authors.
A promoted post from the QatarExposed account said: “Why does the richest country in the world support terrorism?”
An accompanying video shows images from the soccer game between France and Germany in Paris in November 2015 that was targeted by suicide bombers as the narrator says: “Financing and promoting extremism has become state policy.”
The sequence continues with footage of Qatar winning the FIFA vote in 2010 and concludes saying: “Its sovereign neighbors have taken a stand, they won’t back down.”
KickQatarOut, a second account, features similar branding — with the same typeface and header graphic — and also posted its first message on Oct. 20.
With an illustration of a hand showing a red card, the account advocates calls for FIFA to strip Qatar of the World Cup and highlights concerns about conditions for migrant workers.
A promoted tweet claims there are “projections of 4,000 dead workers,” as Qatar hosts the World Cup.
“This is naked and embarrassing corruption, it will destroy international football, for the sake of one country,” another KickQatarOut tweet states.
Asked if it would be looking into the lack of transparency surrounding the QatarExposed and KickQatarOut accounts, Twitter said: “We don’t comment on individual accounts.”
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Shahzad Khan was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS