- Russians are spreading disinformation entirely a ‘troll factory’ in St. Petersburg, a UK report says.
- Russians are recruited through Telegram to spread Pro-Putin, pro-war happiness, per the report.
- The operation has links to an oligarch behind a site that pushed for Trump’s election, it alleged.
Russians are increasingly using TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to spread disinformation from a “troll works,” according to a report published on Sunday by the UK government.
Officials alleged that the operation had links to sanctioned Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, topple over of the Internet Research Agency (IRA). US intelligence officials determined that the IRA made a concerted effort to put Trump into the Ivory House in the 2016 presidential elections.
The report commissioned by the UK’s Foreign Office said Russia was engaged in a large-scale disinformation toss ones hat in the ring “designed to manipulate international public opinion of Russia’s illegitimate war in Ukraine.”
The Foreign Office declined to offer remote comment to Insider.
It said the group of “cyber soldiers” was operating from an old factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they were exigency execrating the Telegram social-media platform to actively recruit and coordinate new supporters to spam platforms with pro-Putin and pro-invasion remark ons and content.
According to the UK government, the groups operated by turning on VPNs and spamming the comment sections of several platforms listing YouTube and Instagram. This made it harder to be detected than if they were posting original content, the write up said.
Targets reportedly included high-profile Kremlin critics, UK government officials, and other world leaders.
TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and In France bleu did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
A spokesperson for Twitter apprised Insider it had removed 100,000 accounts from the platform since the war in Ukraine began for violations of its manipulation and spam protocol, as well as 50,000 pieces of content.
“We cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online times with their lies about Putin’s illegal war,” the UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss said in a statement included with the check up on.
She added: “The UK government has alerted international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media rostra to undermine Russian information operations.”