Facebook And Twitter Eliminate Disinformation Accounts Targeting Ukrainians

One of the largest disinformation groups in Russia operated alongside the Russian-dominated Donbas, Crimea and Ukraine regions.

Facebook and Twitter said that they removed two anti-Ukrainian covert influence operations over the weekend. One was tied to Russia, and the other had connections to Belarus.

One of the campaigns, which featured a website that promoted anti-Ukraine talking point websites, was an offshoot from a well-known Russian disinformation operation. Facebook spokesmen said that it used computer-generated faces in order to boost the credibility of fake columnists on several platforms, including Instagram.

Another campaign used hacked accounts for similar anti-Ukraine propaganda. It was linked to a well-known Belarusian hacking group.

Disinformation experts warned Russia will continue to attempt to manipulate narratives about Ukraine, primarily around the claims of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Twitter and Facebook removed networks, pushing narratives that Putin mentioned in his speech announcing a Military Operation. This has since become a large-scale invasion.

The announcement also shows Russia still uses disinformation strategies originally identified years ago during the 2016 election. But, with some advancements — notably, the use of software that creates realistic and original human faces.

Nathaniel Gleicher (Meta’s head for security policy), stated that the largest of the two disinformation organizations operated in Russia. It was also linked to the Russian-dominated Donbass and Crimea areas of Ukraine. (Meta is Facebook’s parent company.)

Gleicher stated in an interview that the propaganda campaign was capable of “seeding stories across the Internet that Ukraine isn’t doing well,” by “pretending” to be journalists based out of Kyiv.

Twitter claimed it had banned over a dozen accounts linked to the News Front or South Front Russian operation. These accounts were pushing links to a new propaganda website called Ukraine Today.

“We permanently suspended more than a dozen accounts and prevented the sharing of many links in violation of our platform manipulation and spam policies. While our investigation continues, we have discovered that accounts and links were originated in Russia. They are trying to disrupt public discourse around the conflict in Ukraine,” a Twitter spokesperson explained in a statement.

Hackers used compromised email addresses and passwords to log in to their Facebook profiles, targeting journalists, military personnel, as well as local public officials. The hackers would then post a video that showed a Ukrainian waving an “in surrender” white flag.

Renee DiResta (the Stanford Internet Observatory’s research manager) said that it is unlikely that U.S. users will be next targeted.