Bot farm with over 20,000 accounts, through which Russia spread disinformation about Ukraine, has been dismantled. PHOTOS
The Security Service and the National Police have detained the organiser of an underground bot farm in Zhytomyr, which ruscists used to carry out information sabotage against Ukraine.
According to the case file, the suspect sold over 3,000 fake Telegram accounts to the aggressor country every month for the dissemination of Kremlin propaganda, reports Censor.NET.
Details
To do this, the perpetrator created ‘dummy’ accounts registered to mobile numbers of Ukrainian operators, and then sold them on specialised hostile online platforms.
It has been established that his main clients were representatives of the Russian special services, who spread disinformation about the Defence Forces and the internal situation in Ukraine.
The ruscists also used fake accounts to disseminate anonymous messages, purportedly from citizens of our country, about the ‘mining’ of domestic facilities.
In this way, the enemy attempted to provoke panic among the population in order to destabilise the socio-political situation in Ukraine.
SSU officers documented the suspect’s crimes and detained him at his place of residence, where he had set up a bot farm. At the same time, law enforcement officers blocked nearly 20,000 fake online profiles that were ‘working’ for Russian intelligence officers.
During searches of the suspect’s residence, computer equipment, USB hubs with modems, telephones and nearly 2,000 SIM cards from various mobile operators were seized.
He has now been notified of the charges against him: unauthorised interference with the operation of information (automated), electronic communications, information and communications systems, and electronic communications networks, carried out by a group of individuals acting in collusion.
The investigation is ongoing to establish all the circumstances of the illegal activity and to determine the additional classification of the suspect’s criminal actions.
