El Drezkicio’s chameleon-like account doesn’t flinch when it comes to stealing identities. And lying. In his long history of deceptions, he went from being a supposed guard of a TV station that put Millaray Viera in trouble to -more recently- becoming the “most influential fact-checking site in Chile“.
All this was encouraged by the unwary (including more than one politician) who do not know that they fell into a whirlwind of fake news that reached more than 20,000 followers.
It started as a security guard, then pretended to be the director of Radio Bío Bío. It appeared as a supposed fact-checking platform, and now it is a profile with a false name that generates politically tinged content.
That is how chameleon-like has been the history of a Twitter account that shares messages in favor of the Rejection.
The account has been sanctioned for two months after users reported it. In July, it spread a lie about TV host Millaray Viera. Then he impersonated Tomás Mosciatti to decontextualize political information. He left but came back. First, as Fact Check Chile, an alleged “news checker”, and now as a staunch profile of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Rejection.
His account became popular in its “fact checker” version. It reached more than 20,000 followers, including politicians. The phenomenon reached such an extent that La Tercera published a graph where -based on a study by Rebaño Consultores- he is listed as one of the most influential of the Creole social networks.
Its framework is always the same. Twitter sanctions his accounts for impersonation or dissemination of false information, then changes his user name, deletes all his old publications, and starts from scratch with another name.
But three points gave it away: the creation date, the ID (identification number of a Twitter account that does not change, a virtual fingerprint that remains over time), and the previous replies linking to your most recent account.
In the last passage of the story, the tweeter who calls himself an “independent and objective account” modified his user “Fact Check Chile” and gave it his current name: El Drezkicio. The latter, after his main account “@Drez___Trumpi” was suspended for not complying with Twitter rules.
THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES
In July of this year, a user went by the name @pedroenchil. Pedro described himself as a guard who worked at Chilevisión until 2021. He tweeted that he always saw the singer and entertainer Millaray Viera passing by the channel but that she never greeted him.
He claimed that once, the hostess asked him to wash her car and did not even offer him a tip.
Viera denied this within seconds. He replied that he never went by car to CHV and knew all the channel’s guards very well, and he was not listed as one.
His stories went further, this time in a political way. According to “Pedro”, his 13-year-old son was forced to paint a mural of Apruebo in his school. As the little boy did not want to, he indicated that he was given a negative annotation. Pedro assured that he would go to the end with the consequences.
He even claimed to have gone to see the mural and uploaded a photo on July 3, saying it was real. But the story was false. The mural had already been painted two years ago by the Ramona Parra Brigade of the Cordillera.
Two weeks later, “Pedro’s” account disappeared from the map. It mutated into one that claimed to belong to the director of Radio Bío Bío: Tomás Mosciatti.
His strategy worked for a while. Few noticed that the name was misspelled (@tomasmosciati). He uploaded videos with Mosciatti’s opinion columns, but only excerpts, so they were out of context.
Once again, he was full of complaints of impersonation and opted for new modifications.
The next step was riskier. He no longer stole anyone’s identity but pretended to be a fact check account, that is, one that verifies information shared on social networks.
THE POWER OF LIES
The account gained sudden fame. It surpassed 20,000 followers, and its publications were shared more than a thousand times. However, most of the content it shared was inaccurate or biased.
In parallel, the main account of @Drez___Trumpi (the character behind the chameleon accounts) lost its profile after Twitter suspended it for not complying with community standards.
In this context, the @FactChile account with more than 20,000 followers was renamed @ElDrezkicio. Meanwhile, another profile created in August 2021 (also by the same character) acquired the appearance and name of @FactChile.
Fact Check Chile, in this new account, tweeted on August 17 that they had suffered a “programmed attack by intolerant people”. He started “from scratch” on an account created a year ago and currently has 3,491 followers.
In this new account, he continued to share inaccurate or false content.
For example, they assured and “confirmed” that Congresswoman Claudia Mix demanded that child labor be legalized, but the same parliamentarian responded that the information was edited and taken out of context.
Former congressmen Fernando Atria and Gaspar Domínguez were also the objects of false or biased verifications.
CONNECTING THREADS
Although all the posts created two months ago by the different accounts (Pedro, Tomás Mosciatti, and Fact Chile) were deleted, the users’ responses were recorded, and Twitter linked them to the current account: @eldrezkicio. In simple terms, the ID address (the kind of RUT in Twitter) is the same despite changing names.
Radio Bío Bío journalist Néstor Aburto exposed the impostor. The fake Tomás Mosciatti did not close his account but deleted the messages and “mutated” into other fake personalities. As the ID does not change, this metamorphosis could be evidenced in the answers.
Although La Tercera published a graph based on a study, where Fact Check Chile is listed as one of the most influential, in the body of the article, they explained that the content of this account is inaccurate. But as a result, the fake checker used this study to call itself and boast as “The most influential Fact Checking company in Chile”.
In that line, Fabián Padilla, director of Fast Check (@fastcheckcl), a real verifier certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, discovered the situation a few days ago because users began to report it. When La Tercera published the graphic, Padilla denied the situation from his personal account.
“I am struck by what La Tercera is doing. They supposedly have a fact-checking unit; therefore, the basics would be what anyone on Twitter, simply clicking on the account and seeing what they do, realizes that it is not a serious account. It not only harms them but also harms the public debate by validating an account that misinforms,” he said.
Being more critical, he adds: “I don’t know if the review and editing process failed or if they simply don’t care. I think what they are doing is serious, and I don’t really understand it so far”.
The account impersonation scheme is a bit complex to understand, but some data help to clarify the matter. To give you an idea: now some politicians follow the user “eldrezkicio”.
These users were previously followers of the content of “Fact Check Chile”. When the name was changed, the new imposter “inherited” the followers of the previous fake account.
Among the political and society figures are: Marcela Cubillos, Bernardo Fontaine, Diego Paulsen, Lucas Palacios, Jorge Tarud, Renzo Trisotti, Lucy Ana Aviles, Matias Walker, Leonidas Romero, Max Colodro, Gabriel Alemparte, Sergio Bobadilla, Camila Flores, Barbara Rebolledo, Mauricio Ojeda, and the official account of Amarillos Chile.
And with the new FactChile account, the impostor persuaded other well-known followers: Lucas Palacios, Mariana Aylwin, Rodolfo Carter, and actress Daniela Nicolás.
Whether due to ignorance, deception, or inaccuracy, these real users amplify and validate the fake fact-checking—a whirlwind of lies we are all exposed to on social networks.
After the publication of this article, the user changed his name on the main account again. This time he changed his name to “@dr3ztonado” and used a profile picture of Zalo Reyes, while the @FactChile account is now “Fact Check Aprueba” and issued a statement saying ironically that it is in favor of Apruebo.
With information from BBCL