Western media websites are being attacked by pro-Russian trolls to spread propaganda and misinformation in the Kremlin’s interests, according to a British university study released on Monday.
The Institute for Crime and Research Security at the University of Cardiff said it had obtained evidence from 32 major news outlets in 16 countries attacked by manipulating their readers’ comments section.
These media include the British newspapers Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Times, the US media Fox News and the Washington Post, the French newspaper Le Figaro, the German media Der Spiegel and Die Welt. and the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The researchers said they had found 242 articles on Russia, with provocative pro-Russian or anti-Western comments.
The Russian-language publications then used the comments as a basis for other articles to suggest that readers believe that there is wider support for Russian politics and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the West.
The researchers noted that such tactics have been used more frequently since 2018.
Martin Inness, director of the Institute for Crime and Research Security at the University of Cardiff, said trolling operations were significant in terms of scale and performance.
“By hijacking the Western media comment sections, it has been possible to present our propaganda as a reference to widespread opinion,” he added.
“The Western media we studied are particularly vulnerable to this type of manipulation, and no security measures have been taken to prevent, deter or detect this type of activity,” Inness said.
“Trolls have been able to easily switch between individuals and identities,” he added.
The researchers used data science recognition and identification techniques that indicated an organized campaign with suspicious account profiles that repeatedly changed their personality and location.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rab said Britain and its allies were fighting the Kremlin’s trolls, which spread lies.
“This report highlights the threat to our democracy posed by Russian state-backed disinformation on the Internet,” the minister said.
The report said there was evidence of coordination between the Russian state-owned media, those who had previously disseminated misinformation, and expenditures identified by Western intelligence as linked to Russia’s security services.
Inness said that given the potential to influence public opinion, it was important for media companies that have websites with comment sections to be more transparent than the ways in which misinformation is fought and to do more to prevent it.
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