BBC: Putin's mysterious Facebook 'superfans' on a mission

[DBoon]

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned in many parts of the world, but a network of Facebook groups run by people with obscure motivations would like to change perceptions of the country's leader.
...
ISD experts identified 10 pro-Putin public groups, boasting names such as Vladimir Putin - Leader of the Free World. The groups have more than 650,000 members between them. Content includes photos and messages praising the Russian leader, written in a number of languages, including English, Russian, Farsi, Arabic and Khmer.

Not only are they popular, but they are very active. Over the past month, researchers counted 16,500 posts, receiving more than 3.6 million interactions.

The overall aim of the groups seems to be to promote Mr Putin as a hero standing up to the West, with overwhelming international support.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-61012398

Many of these accounts are duplicates, controlled by the same individual, a violation of Facebook rules.

Note that Putin himself has no direct social media presence, and no official Facebook page. This has lead to impersonator pages, including one touting the Russian anti-covid vaccine.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. {gentle ribbing moot}

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2022, 03:04 PM - Edit history (1)

[DBoon]

2. fixed

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Interesting and unsurprising. Reminds me of Candace Owens and Lara Trump complaints

... that after Putin invaded Russia, they got a drastic cut in replies / followers / retweets.

[Trueblue1968]

4. REPORT ALL THOSE GROUPS. HATE SPEECH. BULLYING.