Analysts from the Disinformation Intelligence project have uncovered a large-scale coordinated attack in the Polish segment of YouTube. The goal of the network of almost 1,000 profiles and hundreds of bots is to destabilize the information space and provoke conflict between Ukrainians and Poles in the comments under videos.
Analysts from the Disinformation Intelligence project have uncovered a large-scale coordinated attack in the Polish segment of YouTube. The goal of the network of almost 1,000 profiles and hundreds of bots is to destabilize the information space and provoke conflict between Ukrainians and Poles in the comments under videos.
This was reported by the investigative journalism agency "Slidstva.Info", which received the results of the study.
By applying artificial intelligence to analyze large data sets, researchers discovered the following pattern:
almost 600 accounts posted messages with an interval of less than 4 seconds, which is technically impossible for a human;
only 2% of all commentators generated over a third (36%) of all negative mentions about Ukraine and the EU;
out of 22,000 negative comments analyzed, 8,000 turned out to be absolutely identical;
Hundreds of identical messages appeared simultaneously on different channels, after which other suspicious profiles instantly picked them up and created an artificial illusion of a "discussion."
The study covered more than 5,000 videos on Polish YouTube, published during the period of the most heated debates on the network — from May 23 to July 15.
The catalyst for another information wave was the naming of the Special Operations Center "North" "after the heroes of the UPA." This caused a sharp reaction in Poland, in particular from President Karol Nawrotsky, who publicly stripped Volodymyr Zelensky of his highest award, the Order of the White Eagle.
The botnet instantly picked up on the topic. The most active account, JolantaDziwota-v5o, existed for only 26 days, but managed to leave 762 comments, 88 of which were identical.
Disinformation Intelligence analysts have been monitoring the Polish information space for 2.5 years. They noticed that the same accounts that are currently inflating the topic of the UPA had previously actively commented on the downing of Russian drones in Poland.
Pawel Lieber, co-founder of Disinformation Intelligence: "The topic of the UPA, which led to the conflict between the two countries, was not very popular in the Polish information field itself. But as a result of the coordinated work of bots, it was artificially inflated - they influenced almost a quarter of all discussions around this conflict. This is almost 600 bots and a network of 947 accounts. The pattern of behavior of malicious accounts is almost always similar: a small number of profiles fill more than 36% of the space. Such programs are activated during election campaigns and social conflicts in countries that are the object of Russia's interest."
Although it is impossible to officially identify the network's customers based on the closed code of the platforms, the nature, methodology, and coordination of actions directly indicate the style of Russian information warfare structures.
Disinformation Intelligence developers have already sent detailed reports about the detected network to government agencies in Ukraine and Poland. However, as of now, the analysts have not yet received responses from official agencies in either country.
