Darren Linville, a professor at Clemson University in South Carolina who has been studying the Kremlin-linked troll farm (IRA) since 2017, said he was able to create more authentic posts. It has identified the sharing of fake information checking posts and accounts that reinforce misinformation through links between platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Telegram as current tactics by the IRA, which is now believed to operate in different locations. On Sunday, the UK government claimed to have located a former factory in St. Petersburg as a new base for trolling operations where “cyber soldiers are ruthlessly targeting politicians and audiences in various countries, including the United Kingdom, South Africa and South Africa.” The State Department and the Commonwealth Office cited an unpublished government-funded investigation that allegedly showed paid staff in Russia “using the Telegram to recruit and actively coordinate new supporters who then target the profiles of critics.” of the Kremlin on social media – sending them spam with professionals. “Putin and pro-war comments.” Linville said this was “largely consistent with what we have seen the IRA do before, given how it understands the power of authenticity.” The targets were reportedly Boris Johnson’s social media accounts as well as the accounts of bands and musicians such as Daft Punk, David Guetta and Tiësto. The government said it had shared the research with social media platforms. She said the Russian company was looking for “organic content” posted by genuine users based on its messages and was then working to reinforce those messages. “This means that, provided the content they publish is not too offensive, they are unlikely to be subject to platforming interventions,” an official said. Foreign Minister Liz Truss said: “We can not allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our internet sites with their lies about Putin’s illegal war. “The UK government has alerted its international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media platforms to undermine Russian intelligence operations.” Linville said trolls using comments on legitimate accounts were a common misinformation tactic and were not new, adding: “The IRA has a long history of exploiting legitimate voices.” One advantage of a troll posting comments under an account with a large number of followers is that they do not need the same many followers to be visible. She said the IRA was almost always published in Russian and the main target seemed to be influencing Russian public opinion, but the UK government said its latest inquiry suggested that the Moscow operation was “designed to manipulate international public opinion” in favor of of its military campaign in Ukraine. TikTok and Twitter have closed dozens of accounts in recent months that Linvill believes may be linked to the IRA. He said the impact of TikTok was particularly impressive, with some accounts having hundreds of thousands of followers. “They were very, very effective,” he said. “They received an incredible attraction in the nationalist Russian space.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Twitter said it was taking precautionary measures against non-genuine behavior and that since the start of the war in Ukraine it has removed more than 100,000 accounts for breaches of the platform’s political manipulation and spam. Has tagged or removed 50,000 pieces of content. TikTok and Meta, which manages Facebook and Instagram, have also been approached for comment. Linville said the IRA’s strategy was not to make people believe something new, but rather to cast doubt and distrust on sources of information that are usually considered legitimate, especially to prevent domestic opposition to the Russian president. “If you do not believe in anything, you are not going to fight for anything and you are more likely to keep up with Putin,” he said.
