I want to write a little bit about NAFO, some challenges we face, and why, it still is a valuable movement in fighting disinformation and helping Ukraine at the end of 2023.
A little over a year ago I took the time to put together a thread on my personal advice for NAFO (North-Atlantic Fella Organization- I will never get used to the American spelling). What urged me at the time to do so was seeing the movement explode, and as a result, a few, less desirable events occurred, and people made mistakes.
I imagine if you are here you know what is NAFO, but, in case you didn’t, lets use the wiki entry
“The North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO, French: Organisation des Fella de l’Atlantique nord, OFAN, a play on NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an Internet meme and social media movement dedicated to countering Russian propaganda and disinformation about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1][2][3][4] It has been categorised as a form of information warfare.[2]
In addition to posting irreverent commentary about the war and memes promoting Ukraine or mocking the Russian war effort and strategy (“shitposting“), the group also raises funds for the Ukrainian military and other pro-Ukrainian causes.[1][3] The representation of a NAFO “Fella” is a Shiba Inu dog, often used as an avatar and sometimes described as a “cartoon dog”[3][5] or a “group of Shiba Inu soldiers”.[6] According to The Economist, “NAFO’s flippancy obscures its role as a remarkably successful form of information warfare.”[2]
Now, a year on, we have continued to grow, although we have been faced with some significant difficulties. I want to go through some of the challenges, and explain how, some of the challenges, and criticisms of us (fair or not) are fundamentally due to our very nature as a decentralised movement, and then demonstrate why this is precisely why we are effective.
The biggest challenge has been Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which has hindered many Ukrainian and pro-Ukrainian voices, and fundraisers, and generally amplified some of the worst people on this planet. Musk’s reign turned what was once an imperfect but valuable social media platform into a cesspool of hatred, disinfo, and general terribleness. With the changes in algorithm, the firing of the disinfo and moderation team, the return of banned accounts, the monetisation of the blue ticks completely undermining the entire point of them, and a load of other changes, it has been a challenge.
Yet, we have persisted. While many of us are preparing to have new places for social media such as Bluesky (like me), it is imperative we stay on Twitter, and other social media channels, to keep tackling disinformation.
What other challenges has NAFO faced?
Infighting for one thing. This has particularly been noticeable with the recent horrific scenes we have witnessed in the Hamas-Israel war. Some within NAFO have been resolutely pro Israel, or pro-Palestine (though not remotely pro-Hamas). Others have decided to stay quiet, or have issues with people on both sides.
Other times there has been personal issues with certain members falling afoul of another, sometimes over bullshit sometimes over grifting, or perceived grifting.
Demotivation is another issue. Certainly, as the war approaches another winter, with a relatively static front, disinfo online, stories about “war fatigue” from those sat safely in the west, and the russian war machine churning on still, some may feel they are unable to continue to operate with the high energy they used to, or worried they aren’t making a difference.
As an aside to respond to this, remember you are making a difference, and there are many reasons to still feel positive: Ukraine has shown to be very capable of attrition, in launching attacks deep into enemy territory, and actually many weapons are still being sent to Ukraine. The USA needs to focus on keeping the MAGA lot out, and the EU needs to step up its production, but also, Ukraine is also making headway into its own production. It knows it cannot rely on the West forever, things can change quickly. We’re all tired of the war, Ukrainians especially. But, we, NAFO, can still help. In NAFO, you can take a rest, you can take on different roles- it all adds up. Even if it’s just bringing a smile to a Ukrainian or another fella’s face with a funny meme, not everyone has to be leading fundraisers for tens of thousands of dollars or bonking nonsense 24/7. The other thing is, there are so many, fellas can step in for you.
Attacks, doxxing, things like that do affect people. This is just a part of online disinformation warfare I am afraid, and ultimately, it relies on you being careful, but also being prepared that it can happen to you. It affects women disproportionately more because women being happy and helping Ukraine upsets incel vatniks more than anything.
The last issue is the accusations that NAFO supports X, Y, or Z…Some examples are sharkgate, where it was claimed because of many of our jokes about the shark incident, or the shark toy on stage at the NAFO Summit, we all felt that all russians deserved to be eaten by sharks or something. Now, full disclosure, I retweeted shark memes, didn’t feel bothered by the shark toy, and found the russian liberal response frankly laughable. But it did make me think that people were assuming all fellas thought the same. I know some actually didn’t like the shark jokes, for example.
Other examples are the prominence of the very pro-Israel fellas, or the attempts at Zionist fellas (which I personally think is a bad idea as I said in a tweet which some did like, whatever, you’re free to your opinions as I am to mine). I just think it’s bad to try to speak for all of NAFO. People then assume all of NAFO is uncritically pro-Israel, which, again isn’t true. I’ve been critical of some of Israel’s response against Hamas, who I have and will repeatedly condemn as terrorist butchers, and many other fellas share this view as well. The point here is that we do not all share the same opinion.
The fundamental problem with everything listed is that we are a decentralised movement. Decentralised movements lack unified policies, leaders, spokespeople, but, for outsiders when they see certain views or behaviours, whether they are universally shared, such as pro-Ukraine, pro-freedom, pro-democracy, or not i.e. pro-Israel, pro-capitalism, pro-Biden, etc, they perceive it as uniform. The issues of infighting, disagreements, doxxing, etc, are all part of being in a decentralsied movement. It is a risk we have. We are bubbles within bubbles, and operate individually, meaning, we can ultimately separate from each other.
But here lies our strength. The challenges are from the nature of our movement, but so are our opportunities. So is the capacity to fight back against disinformation. We regroup, we moderate ourselves from grifters, extreme opinions, we come to find harmony and agreement eventually, and move forward. One fella leaving, or getting banned, or getting effectively “kicked out” (I recall one fella who was being incredibly racist and was blocked en-masse) the movement continues.
Going Forward Into 2024
The biggest challenge for us is the algorithm. I see fewer fellas outside of a core group, the algorithm does not share with me what it used to, and people suffer from visibility issues, including myself, and that can create a sense of isolation. This is why we need to do a few things, in my personal opinion:
- Understand the landscape we are in regarding the algorithm, and support each other through retweets and boosts
- Try not to get disheartened, ride out this shitstorm until it stabilises or we have to eventually jump ship
- Prepare on other social media
- Focus on the core goals: fighting russian disinformation, raising money for Ukraine (including the Legion), and avoiding drama and cliquey-ness
- Find new and innovative ways to spread the word. The success of “NAFO commandos” on Truth Social is actually a great example of this.
I will end this for now. I do recommend revisiting some of my threads if you like, and reflecting on what I have said. Feel absolutely free to disagree on any of this, that is precisely how it works, but we have to find ways to compromise and work together. I also wish to emphasisie, this isn’t to paint a bleak picture of NAFO. By no means are we at the end stage, there are so so many of us, people creating new ideas, raising money, and we’re all over russian nonsense. I think the difference between a year ago and now is that the novelty of NAFO has worn off online. It’s just a part of the landscape, and that is incredible. But more work is to be done.
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