Post · bonfire.cafe

Post

RE: https://mastodon.social/@dprimeorg/116022172206275260

Well folks, it seems I’m finally busted. From your trusted source of Anonymous Mastodon Account That Was Created Yesterday and the folks who brought you the groundbreaking investigative reports “What is The Buzzing Sound Outside?” and “The Science Caffeine: How It Boosts Your Dopamine Levels” comes their latest bombshell: “The Aral Balkan Case: A Technical Examination of Humanitarian Claims and Digital Identity.”

https://medium.com/@silkroad1/the-aral-balkan-case-a-technical-examination-of-humanitarian-claims-and-digital-identity-0bd5f4b3f14c

If you’d like to read four minutes of pure gibberish from a troubled mind, please be my guest. (At this point I’m not even convinced this is Nabil - the writing style and bonkers conspiracy theories remind of that LinuxIsBest guy’s ramblings.)

What’s not funny is that whoever it is is using photos of Joy, a young Palestinian woman and one of our team at Gaza Verified who is suffering through untold horrors in Gaza and doing so without her permission and in ways that are traumatic to her and her family.

Please, if you get a moment, report and block both here and on Medium.

#GazaVerified #conspiracyTheories #Nabil

Dźwiedziu

@dzwiedziu@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral
> Before you read my story, I want you to verify I’m real:

For one coffee I will tell you two-three non-UK-specific methods of using someone's identity. You may know them already, but I need that coffee \s

> How likely is it that an individual operating under wartime conditions in Gaza would independently deploy or utilize [sic] such [PDS] infrastructure?

And this concludes my examination of the technical examination.

The dude now owns me two coffees.

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@jackyan@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral I’d love to report this phony—except I can’t remember how. Medium says there is a three-dot menu on every page and I just can’t see one. I had the same problem in 2024—wish I remember how I got past it.

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@jackyan@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral Ah, got it. You have to be a Medium member and be signed in. Reporting now.

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@jackyan@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral Note: people need to do more than just the three-dots … we need to file additional information—keep clicking till you get to the form. Based on past experience, Medium will not do anything without each of us commenting on why this post is harmful. Alternatively, write to trust@medium.com.

Hi team:
This post is libellous as it claims to have evidence against Aral Balkan, but it doesn't hold water. Also it uses images of Joy, a woman suffering in Gaza, without permission. It also doesn't appear to be by someone called Nabil despite a link to a public site (which anyone can do).
Kind regards,
Jack — Hi team: This post is libellous as it claims to have evidence against Aral Balkan, but it doesn't hold water. Also it uses images of Joy, a woman suffering in Gaza, without permission. It also doesn't appear to be by someone called Nabil despite a link to a public site (which anyone can do). Kind regards, Jack

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@jackyan@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral Success!

Hello, Jack--

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We have determined the content(s) violate our rules:
https://policy.medium.com/medium-rules-30e5502c4eb4

We have now suspended the content(s) from public view.

It may take search engines a few days to re-crawl and ignore any results for suspended Medium content. If you do not see improvements after a week, you will need to contact those search engines directly to request immediate removal.

If you need anything else, please let me know.

Thanks,
Trust & Safety — Hello, Jack-- Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have determined the content(s) violate our rules: https://policy.medium.com/medium-rules-30e5502c4eb4 We have now suspended the content(s) from public view. It may take search engines a few days to re-crawl and ignore any results for suspended Medium content. If you do not see improvements after a week, you will need to contact those search engines directly to request immediate removal. If you need anything else, please let me know. Thanks, Trust & Safety

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 2 weeks ago

@jackyan CC @joynewacc @fabio

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 2 weeks ago

@jackyan Thank you 😊 🙏💕

Jack Yan (甄爵恩)

@jackyan@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

@aral You are most welcome!

nLupo :anarchist_flag: :antrans_flag:

@nlupo@amikejo.xyz · 3 weeks ago

@aral Yeah Palestinians are ignorant cave people and can't setup a Bluesky PDS, despite that there are plenty of videos on YouTube which is installed 99.99% on every phone. Don't tell me they don't use cell phones.

Also, bullet points...

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@nlupo CC @fabio And even those gibberish claims about the PDS are technically incorrect, right?

Fabio Manganiello

@fabio@manganiello.eu · 2 weeks ago

@aral @nlupo that’s right. PDS used by Joy’s account on Bluesky:

❯ curl -s "https://plc.directory/$(
curl -s 'https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.identity.resolveHandle?handle=joyfromghazza.bsky.social' | jq -r '.did'
)" | jq -r '.service[0].serviceEndpoint'
https://fibercap.us-west.host.bsky.network

Server info:

❯ curl -s "https://fibercap.us-west.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.server.describeServer" | jq

{
"did": "did:web:fibercap.us-west.host.bsky.network",
"availableUserDomains": [
".fibercap.us-west.host.bsky.network"
],
"inviteCodeRequired": true,
"links": {
"privacyPolicy": "https://bsky.social/about/support/privacy-policy",
"termsOfService": "https://bsky.social/about/support/tos"
},
"contact": {}
}

It’s an invite-only server hosted on Bluesky’s own network, further confirmed by the fact that it even advertises Bluesky’s official ToS and privacy policy (something that matches what Joy said from the very beginning, that she was on a PDS sympathetic with minorities, but still part of the main network).

And a quick search for recent posts on that PDS shows that there’s still activity from other users, even if Joy is no longer posting there:

❯ curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $BSKY_JWT" "https://bsky.social/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts?q=fibercap.us-west.host.bsky.network" \
| jq -r '.posts[].author.handle'
aragorn-estragon.bsky.social
ohlamoole.bsky.social
shigepon.net
...

So yeah…so much for the theory of “this is a PDS that Aral took online just to host his fake account”, and so much for Nabil’s claims of being a “Bluesky expert”…

gomli

@gomli@piaille.fr · 3 weeks ago

@aral
You have my full support. I've been following you since the ground offensive. Thank you again for your initial work with @joynewacc . We're with you! :)

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@gomli @joynewacc 💕

a fish named dog 🎗️✡️♾️

@FishNamedDog@mastodon.social · 3 weeks ago

@aral given that the person's Not-Accusations-Nope-Not-At-All-I'm-Just-Asking-Questions about the photos being AI-generated, the fact that the image for the profile is clearly AI generated is...interesting.

Raphaellakay

@raphaellakay@mastodon.world · 3 weeks ago

@aral

their "article" gave me a headache, it makes no sense at all 😵‍💫

that's really shitty of them to take Joy's pictures without permission + pretending to be another person

casey

@casey@kafeneio.social · 3 weeks ago

@aral It’s comical how obsessed they are. I would be incredibly impressed if I’ve been on all of these calls with someone you fabricated who didn’t really exist. Might need to admit myself somewhere if that were the case 🙃 In all seriousness, we all know you, Aral, and I’ve personally spent enough time with our lovely Joy to know her as well. Some people simply have too much time on their hands and truly need to invest it in an actual hobby.

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@casey 💕

jorny

@jorny@mastodon.social · 3 weeks ago

@aral

So weird!

Dawed from Gaza

@Dawed_for_Gaza@mastodon.world · 3 weeks ago

@aral
@joynewacc
Unfortunately, I wasted my time reading this nonsense in this report.
We all know how honest, ethical, and transparent you are, Mr. Aral.
We support you, and we are all with you.❤️

nemo™ 🇺🇦

@nemo@mas.to · 3 weeks ago

@aral Ahh that person is a freak before he/her posted that nonsense, he tried to Follow me I swear man that fcker with his/her cognitive brain fail thinks he/her is such a genius… yet just a sad troubled freak. Period.

webhat🔜#39c3

@webhat@infosec.exchange · 3 weeks ago

@aral @nemo

I'm not able to see the card that's attached to the toot, I'm assuming they are already blocked by my instance

Screenshot of the last portion of the OP's toot, the embedded card shows "Post unavailable"

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@webhat @nemo Looked like this.

Screenshot of the post as it originally appeared with a comment by Vinnie following it. The dominant image is a screenshot of my account with “SCAM” stamped all over it.

The Drop Bear 2.0

@dropbear@aus.social · 3 weeks ago

@aral they’re so confident in their “evidence”, they’ve deleted it 🤷‍♀️

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@dropbear I think their Mastodon account might have been suspended (I just reported them). I can still access the Medium piece.

spdrnl

@spdrnl@sigmoid.social · 3 weeks ago

@aral Hasbara?

Aral Balkan

@aral@mastodon.ar.al · 3 weeks ago

@spdrnl Possibly. Who knows. You’d think they’d be better at it.

Vinnie (any)

@greenWhale@dice.camp · 3 weeks ago

@aral I clicked the link before I read your thought about the Identity of the writer and I thought the exact same. His wordings and style are 100% the same.

Is this the guy who also claims to work for Facebook btw?