Russia spent 100,000 dollars on anti-Ukrainian propaganda – Meta
A new report by Meta details a group of more than 60 websites posing as European news organizations, bolstered by a network of fake social media accounts. Recently, the company conducted a mass cleaning of these resources and talked about the money spent on propaganda.
In a new report “removing coordinated inauthentic behavior,” Meta notes that the influence campaign originated in Russia and involved an “extensive” network of more than 60 fake websites. The sources impersonated leading European media outlets such as Der Spiegel, The Guardian and Bild.
How the propaganda network worked
Accounts in social networks circulated fake articles from these publications, mostly criticizing Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees or arguing against sanctions imposed on Russia. The content of the fake articles was prepared in various languages, including:
- in English
- in French,
- in German,
- in Italian,
- in Spanish
- in Russian,
- Ukrainian
Above is a genuine publication by The Guardian, below is a fake / Screenshot from the Meta report
This is the largest and most complex operation organized by Russia, which we foiled since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. She was an unusual combination of grace and brute strength. Fake websites and the use of many languages required both technical and linguistic investments. On the other hand, the increase in social networks relied primarily on crude advertising and fake accounts, says the Meta report.
The report’s authors note that these fake account networks have “created mini-brands” online by using the same names on different platforms, and collectively, the pages in the fake account network have spent about $105,000 promoting articles and memes through Facebook and Instagram ads. In some cases, the Facebook pages of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia even amplified the content of the influence campaign.
Publications in Telegram with disinformation about Ukrainian refugees / Screenshot from the Meta report
Memes as weapons
Meta reports that the campaign also used original memes created to promote pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian narratives, and even included petitions launched on Change.org and Avaaz.
In one example, a petition on Change.org demanded that the German government end its “unacceptable generosity” to Ukrainian refugees.
Memes created by Russian Facebook groups for distribution / Screenshot from the Meta report
While some aspects of the campaign were technically sophisticated, Meta notes that the repeated patterns of building and hosting fake accounts led to many of them being removed by automated systems before an in-depth investigation began.
Details of the campaign have been shared with disinformation researchers to help better understand the distribution and creation of such campaigns, the Meta report said.
While Meta has not linked the campaign directly to the Russian government, the Kremlin is experienced in using digital influence operations as a way to project global power. Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian officials were sounding the alarm about Russian disinformation campaigns carried out in the country through social networks.
Russia has also used similar tactics to influence discussions of other important global topics: when the spread of coronavirus vaccines began in early 2021, online publications linked to Russian intelligence services were caught spreading false information about the vaccines.
