Document leak: russians boast that only 1% of their fake social media profiles are blocked
Leaked Pentagon documents reveal russian "troll factory" run from kremlin
russian operators of fake social media accounts boast that they are blocked by social networks only about 1% of the time, according to one of the secret Pentagon documents recently leaked online.
Source. This was reported by The Washington Post, which contacted government officials and experts to comment on the figure.
"Google, Meta, and others are trying to stop the spread of bots, and russia is trying to get around all the obstacles. The number you cite suggests that russia is winning," said Thomas Reed, a disinformation specialist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
The study to analyze russia's effectiveness in amplifying propaganda on Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Telegram and other social media was conducted in late 2022.
The news of russia's improved disinformation capabilities came after Twitter owner Elon Musk lifted most of the restrictions on accounts spreading Russian propaganda on the social network.
Twitter employees also say that they are concerned that Musk's layoffs have undermined the platform's ability to combat the spread of disinformation.
According to company employees, propaganda campaigns and hate speech have increased since Musk bought Twitter in October. russian disinformation spreaders have even purchased new verification checkboxes from Musk.
"Bots view, like, follow, and post content, and manipulate the number of views to push content up in search results and recommendation lists," the document says.
In other cases, the "troll factory" sends content directly to ordinary users after collecting their email addresses and phone numbers from databases.
The goal of russian propaganda is to demoralize Ukrainians and create divisions among Western allies. The "troll factory" is run by a center under the Russian presidential administration.
Background. As a reminder, the SBU liquidated a bot farm that was supposed to spread russian propaganda in Ukraine.
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