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https://checkfirst.network/operation-overload-how-pro-russian-actors-flood-newsrooms-with-fake-content-and-seek-to-divert-their-efforts/>
"“Please Check”. More than 800 organisations, among which many media outlets
have been flooded with emails and social media mentions urging them to verify
dubious claims undermining Ukraine, France and Germany for the most part. The
issue is that these solicitations are part of a massive pro-Russian operation,
still ongoing at the time of writing.
The graffitis, videos or screenshots sent to newsrooms are fake and were
fabricated for the purpose of diverting journalist’s ressources, or even try to
have their narratives amplified by getting fact-checkers to publish debunks.
Operation Overload, as we dubbed the action, is detailed in our latest report,
led with the support of Reset.Tech and 20+ fact-checking entities, which shared
content they had received.
This operation is remarkable for its scale, the elaborate tactics it employs
and the quality of the fake content produced. We uncovered and traced
coordinated action on Telegram and X to create artificial dissemination of fake
content, as well as on a network of websites controlled by the perpetrators.
This content amalgamation technique aims at creating a false sense of a wide
online presence of fakes. The next step are the coordinated email campaigns,
pointing fact-checkers and journalists at the manipulated images or videos
through links to social media and the controlled websites.
This investigation was triggered by the publication of
AFP and
Antibot4Navalny’s coverage of the operation Martryoshka, reporting about a part
of this campaign that unfolded on X. Matryoshka ended up to be only the tip of
the iceberg. As Amaury L., CTO of CheckFirst, puts it: “Overload is
‘Matryoshka’ on steroids”. Indeed, the numbers are staggering. Our research
shows that more than 800 organisations have been targeted by nearly 2400
tweets. 200+ targeted emails were sent to newsrooms across Europe and beyond.
The undertaking achieved its goals in its first months, since we found 250+
articles of fact-checks or debunks mentioning the fake assets created for
Operation Overload."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
