By EU vs Disinfo Facebook and Instagram have removed a total of 203 accounts linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency that were operating out of Ghana and Nigeria and targeted the United States. Earlier this month, a cross-platform social media influence operation linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) but run from Africa was exposed through a joint investigation involving CNN, Facebook, Twitter, social media analytics firm Graphika, and researchers…
By Polygraph RIAFAN.ruRussian news agency“Then everyone watched a video prepared by the organizers of the action. The video encouraged [them] not to stop there, but to continue the fight. Various white American uncles and aunts performed, and, against touching background music, spoke about the support of the ‘people of Hong Kong.’ In the frame appeared different faces from among American politicians and officials. All of them talked about how you…
By Polygraph This week’s takedown of Facebook and Instagram accounts that were used to interfere with African political affairs has provided new insight into the extent to which a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin is engaged in the continent, analysts say. Facebook announced Wednesday that, after a weeks-long investigation, it was removing pages that have been linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman accused of financing similar efforts…
By EU vs Disinfo Facebook took down 50 Instagram accounts that indicated links to the Internet Research Agency and posted 75,000 times. An analysis of the recent disinformation campaign by Graphika, a leading data science and network analysis firm, reveals how Instagram accounts posting about US social and political issues and the 2020 election aimed to polarise communities of swing states ahead of the 2020 US presidential elections. Facebook, which…
By Polygraph Sputnik News Russian state funded radio broadcaster “Russia has been repeatedly accused of meddling in the US elections by Western powers. However, subsequent probes failed to find evidence pointing to any Russian interference in the US election.” Source: Sputnik News, September 30, 2019 False U.S. probes resulted in proof, indictments On Monday, September 30, the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it had taken…
By EU vs Disinfo Kremlin attempts at election meddling in Europe started as far back as 2014, research by Cardiff University’s Crime and Security Research Institute shows. At the end of May 2014, amid the continuing financial crisis in Greece, EU member states were gearing up for the European parliamentary elections. So were the Kremlin’s trolls – for their first known election meddling attempts in Europe. Greek Re(co)nnaissance According to…
By EU vs Disinfo What is worse? To spread lies or to prevent others from telling the truth? The organisation controlled by the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, popularly known as “Putin’s cook”, does both, according to new reports published by the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Mr Prigozhin’s business activities stretch from providing catering services in Russia’s schools and armed forces to running the infamous St. Petersburg “troll factory”, a news agency…
By EU vs Disinfo Thanks to a series of journalistic investigations, many of which have been carried out by Russian reporters, it is already well known that employees at the so-called “troll factory” in St. Petersburg receive instructions about which messages they should push in social media and online debates. Examples of such instructions have now been published in written form in the new indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice, which charges a named…
By EU vs Disinfo Working in a Russian troll factory may not be that dreary after all. According to a former troll interviewed by Russia’s independent TV Rain station, he and his team were instructed to watch the popular Netflix series House of Cards. The troll, identified as “Maksim,” said the series – which casts Kevin Spacey as a ruthless U.S. congressman with presidential ambitions — was meant to educate the…
The video seems to show a man dressed as a US soldier firing three shots into a copy of the Quran. It appeared online in September 2015, generating unusual interest in Russia, prompting strong criticism from the country’s Muslim community. According to an investigative report by the BBC’s Russian-language service, the footage was actually staged by St. Petersburg’s infamous “troll factory,” the Agency for Internet Studies. In the controversial video,…
