# Incident I00006: Columbian Chemicals

* **Summary:** Early Russian (IRA) “fake news” stories. Completely fabricated; very short lifespan. 

* **incident type**: incident

* **Year started:** 2014

* **Countries:** Russia , USA

* **Found via:** 

* **Date added:** 2019-02-24
 

| Technique | Description given for this incident |
| --------- | ------------------------- |
| [T0007 Create fake Social Media Profiles / Pages / Groups](../techniques/T0007.md) | I00006T004 Fake twitter profiles to amplify |
| [T0015 Create hashtag](../techniques/T0015.md) | I00006T003 Create and use hashtag |
| [T0024 Create fake videos and images](../techniques/T0024.md) | I00006T002 Fake video/images |
| [T0039 Bait legitimate influencers](../techniques/T0039.md) | I00006T005 bait journalists/media/politicians |
| [T0043 Use SMS/ WhatsApp/ Chat apps](../techniques/T0043.md) | I00006T001 Use SMS/text messages |
| [T0055 Use hashtag](../techniques/T0055.md) | I00006T003 Create and use hashtag |


DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW

Actor: probably IRA (source: recordedfuture)

Timeframe: 1 day

Date: Sept 11 2014

Presumed goals: test deployment

Method: 
* Artefacts: text messages, images, video
* Create messages. e.g. “A powerful explosion heard from miles away happened at a chemical plant in Centerville, Louisiana #ColumbianChemicals”
* Post messages from fake twitter accounts; include handles of local and global influencers (journalists, media, politicians, e.g. @senjeffmerkley)
* Amplify, by repeating messages on twitter via fake twitter accounts
* Not seen: interaction, refutation etc. 
* TL;DR: early attempts to create fake incidents had limited traction. 

Counters:

* None seen.  Fake stories were debunked very quickly. 

Related incidents: 

* BP oil spill tsunami
* #PhosphorusDisaster - fake story about water contamination scare
* #EbolaInAtlanta -  fake story about Ebola outbreak in Atlanta
* #shockingmurderinatlanta -  fake story about unarmed black woman killed by police in Atlanta

These were all well-produced fake news stories, promoted on Twitter to influencers through a single dominant hashtag (the single hashtag might have been something learned from crisismapping practice of forcing a single hashtag for each disaster because it was easier to track)

References:

* [RecordedFuture trace of attack]()

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_Chemicals_Plant_explosion_hoax 
* https://www.recordedfuture.com/columbianchemicals-hoax-analysis/
* https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?_r=0 
* https://twitter.com/hashtag/PhosphorusDisaster?src=hash