"The FSA and its associates are also exploiting the virtual domain of social
media to disseminate propaganda and disinformation to bolster their causes, with
an eye toward capitalizing on its inherent multiplier effects. Evidence that
activists sympathetic to the FSA have broadcast doctored amateur videos showing
alleged battlefield successes executed by the insurgents against Syrian forces,
desertions of Syrian troops from their posts, and massacres of civilians and
other atrocities blamed on Syrian security forces in the absence of concrete
proof implicating the Ba`athist regime is a case in point.[23] Members of the
Syrian security forces who undergo questioning by the FSA on video also often
appear to recite claims frequently made by the insurgents to validate their
positions. Along with the SNC, the FSA accuses Syrian allies Hizb Allah and Iran
of actively assisting the Ba`athist regime to violently suppress the uprising.
Alleged Shabiha members captured in Idlib Province admitted on a video that was
circulated across cyberspace to receiving orders and support from Hizb Allah
leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran, among other claims, in spite of a lack of
concrete evidence.[24]
The FSA has also worked hard to refute accusations that radical Islamists and other extremists motivated by sectarian agendas or mercenaries acting on behalf of Syria’s enemies make up their ranks. The dissemination of a video showing an alleged Syrian Christian military officer announcing his defection from the Syrian army—the first Christian member of the Syrian security forces to do so, according to the video’s title—and decision to join the Sham Eagles Brigade of the FSA is another example of the insurgency’s resort to social media as a force multiplier.[25]" (thanks Mark)
The FSA has also worked hard to refute accusations that radical Islamists and other extremists motivated by sectarian agendas or mercenaries acting on behalf of Syria’s enemies make up their ranks. The dissemination of a video showing an alleged Syrian Christian military officer announcing his defection from the Syrian army—the first Christian member of the Syrian security forces to do so, according to the video’s title—and decision to join the Sham Eagles Brigade of the FSA is another example of the insurgency’s resort to social media as a force multiplier.[25]" (thanks Mark)
