Pro-Ukrainian NAFO troll chief outed as ‘Nazi’
The Polish Twitter user behind the ‘NAFO’ phenomenon locked his account on Saturday after critics discovered his lengthy record of posts praising Nazi Germany, insulting Jews and denying the Holocaust. The troll-in-chief insists he posted the controversial material “to fit in.”
Kamil Dyszewski has received glowing praise in Western media for posting a crudely-edited Shiba Inu avatar to Twitter earlier this summer. The cartoon dog soon caught on, and pro-Ukrainian accounts began to display their own Shiba avatars and refer to themselves as ‘NAFO’, or the ‘North Atlantic Fellas Organization.’
Since then, the ‘Fellas’ can be found spreading Kiev’s talking points, ganging up to swarm polls and report pro-Moscow accounts, and soliciting donations for the Ukrainian military.
We usually express gratitude to our international partners for the security assistance. But today we want to give a shout-out to a unique entity - North Atlantic Fellas Organization #NAFO. Thanks for your fierce fight against kremlin’s propaganda &trolls. We salute you, fellas! pic.twitter.com/AfDnXf7pfc
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 28, 2022
Before his work was lauded by American weapons manufacturers and their sponsored think tanks, Dyszewski used online platforms to post racialist propaganda about Jews, dispute the Holocaust, and praise Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis. Among the posts are cartoons denying the existence of gas chambers at concentration camps and a meme describing a comparison to Hitler as “nice,” as well as additional photos of the Nazi leader and his propagandist, Joseph Goebbels.
A literal, Hitler-admiring Nazi founded the NAFO propaganda operation (which is publicly supported by the US government to wage information war on Russia) https://t.co/LZnnKFShNP
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 15, 2022
Questioned by some within his own ranks, Dyszewski locked his Twitter account on Saturday, but not before posting an explanation. Describing the controversial posts as “overly edgy and incredibly inappropriate ‘jokes,’” Dyszewski said that he made them “to fit in,” without explaining with whom he was attempting to fit in. He added that these posts, all made around 2020, “do not represent me as a person.”
"No no this is taken way out of context, I only said all those Nazi things in order to fit in with all the Nazis I was friends with so that those Nazis would like me. Please don't stop loving me, western liberals!"https://t.co/Kqgvzv4nqDhttps://t.co/t0e1FlFcmipic.twitter.com/vdhcCsGr2R
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 15, 2022
While NAFO may have started with an offhand internet post by a Polish gamer, it has since grown into a internet-wide phenomenon, counting US Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov, and a host of Western analysts, spies, and other members of the intelligence community as ‘Fellas.’
This member roll has led some critics to argue that NAFO is a creation of Western intelligence agencies. Similar pro-Ukrainian social media campaigns have previously been identified as relying on masses of ‘bot’ accounts.
