American analysts discovered a large-scale operation to spread Russian narratives.
The Kremlin found a new way of distributing propaganda videos about his invasion of Ukraine. To do this, a variety of digital tricks are used to circumvent restrictions imposed by governments and technology companies. This was discovered by the American intelligence firm Nisos, which monitors disinformation and other cyber threats, the Associated Press reports.
According to Nisos analysts, accounts linked to Russian state media published dozens of videos in 18 languages, leaving no trace of the source. The videos promote Kremlin conspiracy theories and accuse Ukraine of civilian casualties. They also say that residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine welcomed the Russian military.
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English versions the videos have been shared on Twitter and on platforms popular with American conservatives, including Gab and Truth Social. The latter was created by the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which is owned by former US President Donald Trump.
“The genius of this approach is that the video can be downloaded directly from Telegram, and it erases the traces that researchers are trying to follow,” Nisos senior analyst Patricia Bailey told the Associated Press. – They are creative and adaptive. And they analyze their audience.”
With the beginning of the Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine, the European Union decided to ban the Russian propaganda media Russia Today and Sputnik on its territory – as a result, their content was removed from such platforms as YouTube from Google and Facebook and Instagram from Meta. This seriously undermined Russia's ability to spread its propaganda.
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Immediately after that, the Kremlin began to look for ways to circumvent new rules. New sites have been created to host videos debunking claims of war. Part of the work was undertaken by Russian diplomats.
Nisos analysts found that propaganda videos without identifying marks were posted on Telegram, then downloaded and reposted on platforms such as Twitter, without indicating that the videos were created by Russian state media. Hundreds of accounts that later posted or reposted the videos were linked by Nisos researchers to the Russian military, embassies or state media. Most of these accounts use fake profile pictures or post content that gives away their inauthenticity.
For example, a Twitter account allegedly managed by a woman living in Japan who is excessively interested in Russian propaganda for a normal Japanese woman. Instead of posting on various topics such as entertainment, food, travel or family, the profile user posts only Russian propaganda videos and not only in Japanese, but also in Farsi, Polish, Spanish and Russian.
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According to Patricia Bailey, this network is “just one piece of a puzzle that is quite large.” The researchers concluded that this operation is the largest of its kind in Russia since the beginning of the war.
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“The network demonstrated a general pattern of targeting Europe using anti-Ukrainian narratives and expressions of support for Russian interests,” the report says. The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Lab, which helped identify the network disabled by Meta.
See special topic: The Telegraph: The US believes that Ukraine is capable of liberating Crimea Earlier in Washington, such a prospect was considered unrealistic, as the Russian army was considered too strong, so that Ukraine could overcome it on the peninsula. The invaders have started a partial mobilization in the Luhansk region – Haidai Summonses are distributed to almost everyone. Russia deported more than 1,600,000 Ukrainians – Zelenskyi Many of them had their documents taken away, some went through the terrible filtration camps of the occupiers, where they were mocked and intimidated , he said. The second strike this morning on Zaporozhye, there is a hit The USA believes that Ukraine can return Crimea — Telegraph The occupiers no longer have the ability or the willpower to defend their key positions on the battlefield.
