Following the fall of the Syrian regime in December 2024, the hashtag "#الجولاني_سفاح_سوريا" (Julani Syria’s Butcher) surfaced prominently on social media platforms, especially X, gaining significant momentum after Ahmed Al Sharaa was appointed head of the Syrian Interim Government.

For consecutive weeks, the hashtag "#الجولاني_سفاح_سوريا" was the subject of analysis by Arabi Facts Hub, which uncovered a coordinated campaign driving the hashtag, led by ideologically motivated accounts.

This analysis would not have been possible without relying on social media analysis tools, foremost among them Meltwater, provided by Arabi Facts Hub as part of the tools program it launched in March of this year.

Meltwater offers a range of reliable features, including:

1. Detecting interaction indicators on a hashtag, in terms of its frequency and reach.
2. Monitoring the nature of engagement; in terms of original content, reposting, commenting, and quoting. The more limited the original content is, the stronger the indication of coordinated campaigns.

3. Analyzing the nature of the content, whether it is negative, positive, or neutral.

4. Displaying a "word cloud," which shows the most frequently used words in content posted under a hashtag, and then highlighting the presence of hate speech, sectarian language, or racism.

5. Meltwater enables users to view the countries with the highest activity on the hashtag. The absence of geographic location data for where interactions originate is another indicator of coordinated campaigns.

6. The tool allows identifying other hashtags related to the hashtag under analysis, as groups of hashtags reflecting a particular ideological orientation are often linked together.

7. The tool allows analyzing the most active accounts engaging with a hashtag.

8. It can analyze audience interaction with accounts, identifying the nature of the account and its owner’s identity. The absence of identity information is an indicator that the account may be automated and could be used to amplify interactions on a certain hashtag.

9. By classifying the most active accounts based on geographic location, the tool helps reveal the ideological orientations of the accounts and identifies who is behind, or directs, them.

10. Meltwater serves as a first step in building a network of accounts interacting with the hashtag in question and understanding the relationships between them.