A network of Russian accounts is spreading disinformation on war in ukraine For months. EU NGO DisinfoLab launched an impact campaign and transport Policy that replaces id up to size 17 media mislead readers with unfounded articles, videos and polls. These contents were then amplified. Fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
This propaganda campaign, coordinated from Russia, was mobilized in May of this year to bolster Russia’s narrative. Kremlin About his military occupation of Ukraine and the destabilization of public opinion by his opponents. Thus, these “clones”, which appeared to be legitimate tools, repeated the usual false accusations of the Government. Vladimir Putin Conspiracies like Ukraine becoming a Nazi country or similar massacres of civilians like Bucha’s are a trap.
The investigation shows that this operation bought web domains with names very similar to the media outlets they promoted and fine-tuned their capabilities by mimicking the design of those pages. cheated. This is a common method of disinformation campaigns, an opaque industry estimated to have moved more than $60,000 million. Coordinated accounts on Facebook and Twitter worked like a loudspeaker to get these lies to more people. So there are those who read Russian frauds thinking they are rigorous and verified journalistic articles.
“Constant Threat”
This disinformation campaign, revealed at the end of August by the German media outlet T-Mobile, highlighting the big media From Germany, England, France, Italy, Ukraine and Latvia. These include ‘The Guardian’, ’20 minutes’, ‘Ansa’ or ‘Bild’, Europe’s best selling newspaper. The investigation did not find that this maneuver had affected the Spanish media.
EU DisinfoLab does not attribute this coordinated operation to any particular actor, but “many elements point to the participation of actors of Russian origin”. Following their footsteps on the Internet, they point out that both the purchase of fake web domains and the production of the published propaganda videos are made from that country. Despite this, the NGO adds, “we cannot completely exclude the possibility of a false operation.” This manipulation campaign is still active, making it an “ongoing threat”.
The authors of the study They ask the authorities to take action to stop such attacks.. “After months of violating European data privacy and property laws using EU-based servers and software, it is alarming that the operation is still ongoing, possibly with no consequences for its perpetrators,” said Alaphilippe, Executive Director of EU DisinfoLab. .