Social network Facebook removed in April up to 1,000 fake accounts and public pages that spread propaganda and offensive content against rival politicians. Some of these accounts were run by Ukraine’s top officials.
People behind these accounts could be linked to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, ex-Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, head of the Dovira party Oleg Kulinich and lawmaker Andriy Derkach who was sanctioned by the U.S. in September over the 2020 presidential election interference, Facebook reported.
“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the Servant of the People political party,” the report reads.
At the time of the publication, neither Servant of the People nor Derkach, nor Groysman have replied to Kyiv Post’s request for comment.
Kulinich told the Kyiv Post that he doesn’t know why his name was mentioned in the report. “I have nothing to do with such activities and have no connections with politicians, whom Facebook suspects of violating its standards,” he said.
Kulinich assumed his name has appeared in the report because of his party’s connections with the key member of Derkach’s media team Petro Zhuravel, who was also mentioned by Facebook. In 2019, Zhuravel helped Kulinich’s Dovira party with social media strategy and promotion on Facebook. They had stopped working together by 2020.
What was deleted
For ordinary users, it is hard to tell the difference between the content posted by real humans and by automated programs know as bots. That is why Facebook investigates suspicious accounts and tries to remove them as fast as possible.
The accounts removed in April shared content in the Ukrainian and Russian languages about corruption, politics and COVID-19. Almost all of them supported Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and criticized ex-president Petro Poroshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
An internet meme posted by a Facebook page called Political Madhouse praising President Volodymyr Zelensky for banning TV channels of pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. The text reads: “When they asked you to take out garbage and you took out Medvedchuk’s TV channels.”
Fake pages posted their content regularly, seven days a week, and even had “prime time.” But unlike the real media, these accounts promoted fakes along with the content copied from news websites like Gordon.ua, Korrespondent.net and Censor.net, often without accurate attribution.
Ukrainian bots
Bots are common in Ukraine. In fact, since 2018 the country has been “among the top sources” of bot activity, according to Facebook. They are usually linked to political parties and PR agencies that use bots to sway public opinion.
In July, for example, Facebook removed dozens fake accounts set up by Ukrainian marketing agency Postmen. Nearly all of them praised ex-President Petro Poroshenko and attacked his political rivals Zelensky and former prime minister and Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
Facebook decided to investigate the accounts linked to Servant of the People after Ukrainian media organization Bukvy in February exposed nearly 100 accounts and 20 public pages run by bots, which published content praising Zelensky and his party.
As a result, Facebook took down 105 user accounts and 24 public pages on Facebook as well as five accounts on Instagram, a social media company that belongs to Facebook. These accounts spent $210,000 to promote their content on the social media.
Facebook started another investigation, this one of Derkach and political consultants associated with Groysman and Kulinich, when it received a tip from the FBI. Facebook removed 477 user accounts, 363 public pages, 35 groups and 29 accounts on Instagram linked to these lawmakers. People behind these accounts spent $496,000 on ads.
Apart from Facebook and Instagram, they also shared fake content on their own websites as well as on YouTube, messenger Telegram and Russian social network VKontakte. These fake accounts supported the politicians and parties with whom they were associated — Derkach’s Nash Krai Party, Groysman’s Ukrainian Strategy Party, and Kulinich’s Dovira group.
An internet meme posted by one of the fake Facebook pages supportive of former Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
Although Derkach and his associates were sanctioned for election interference in the U.S., the activity of the fake accounts recently taken down was focused solely on Ukraine.
Some publications were anti-Russian, which goes against the U.S. Department of Treasury’s identification of Derkach as a Russian agent. Many accounts also shared positive content about NATO and Ukraine’s bid for its membership.
“This activity was likely designed to appeal to their core Ukrainian audience,” Facebook said.
An example of an internet meme mocking Russian tourists. It was originally published by the Daily Telegraph on Sept. 14, 2018, but then copied by the fake Facebook page called Fat Politics. It was used without proper attribution.
The coverage of U.S. politics was mostly neutral and included copied articles about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and sanctions on Russian citizens.
Facebook took down all of these accounts and the posts they shared. It also gave its findings to Ukrainian law enforcement, policy makers and independent researchers.
