Russia uses ‘troll factory’ to spread war propaganda online, UK says

UK-funded researchers have investigated the new tactics of a “troll factory” in St Petersburg involved in the Kremlin’s large-scale disinformation campaign to justify the war in Ukraine.

Pro-Kremlin “trolls” are currently working from Russian soil to “spread lies on social media” and “target” the regime’s opponents and critics, the British government said on Sunday (1 May) after commissioning a study into the matter.

“We cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online spaces with their lies about Putin’s illegal war,” said Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, adding that London had “alerted” its international partners.

The “sick masterminds” of the operations, known on the encrypted messaging app Telegram as “Cyber Front Z”, are believed to work from a former factory in St Petersburg with an in-house team of employees who, in turn, are expected to recruit and mobilise a wider network of supporters.

According to the Russian media outlet Fontanka, the group is offering 45,000 roubles a month (nearly €600) to post 200 comments a day on social networks.

The primary objective is to manipulate international public opinion about the Russian presence in Ukraine and to praise Vladimir Putin. Traces of these operations were found on eight platforms, including Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. The UK government said it shared its findings, urging them to remove any misleading content.

New tactics

British researchers have highlighted new techniques to carry out this disinformation campaign.

Trolls are encouraged to focus their activity on posting comments rather than original content, amplifying posts by ordinary users. Hence, their message, which serves the pro-Russian narrative, is over-represented.

This strategy would avoid any suspicion from the platforms.

The use of a VPN, a “private” channel between a device and a server that allows one to be securely connected and hide one’s online activity, is also recommended for pro-Kremlin activists.

“This evidence will help us to more effectively identify and remove Russian disinformation and follows our decisive action to block anyone from doing business with Kremlin-controlled outlets RT and Sputnik,” said UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.