Ukraine Shuts Down 100K Russian Social Media Accounts Instilling Panic

Over 100,000 fake social media accounts meant to spread misinformation have been shut down since Russia began its invasion, according to the Ukrainian government.

Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) made the announcement on Monday, according to a translated press release, that a network of five Russian bot farms had been shuttered. This network—operating out of the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Ternopil, and Zakarpattia—operated with the goal of instilling panic about the invasion and discouraging citizens.

The fake accounts went about their goal by presenting misinformation about the Russian army's success and the failures of the Ukrainian resistance. They operated in key regions that the Russian forces hoped to destabilize, according to the SSU.

"It was established that the attackers were spreading misinformation about the full-scale Russian invasion of our state and spreading distorted news from the front," the SSU explained.

The physical locations hosting the bot farms in Ukraine were recently raided by law enforcement, leading to the seizure of numerous pieces of equipment used to run the operations. These seizures included the following, according to the SSU: around 100 GMS Gateways, 10,000 mobile phone SIM cards used to disguise the activities of the bot farms, and unspecified amounts of computers and laptops.

The SSU claimed that the operations were run at the behest of Russian special services.

"At the request of the Russian special services, internet agents carried out large-scale information sabotage to shake up the internal situation in Ukraine and assist the racist invaders," the service's official post read. "Social networks, including those banned in Ukraine, were used for subversive work."

No arrests specifically tied to these bot farm operations have been confirmed at this time. Multiple members of the Russian special services are, however, "already facing criminal proceedings under Article 110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine)."

While Russia carries out its own cyber operations in Ukraine, it has also been targeted by the international hacking group known as Anonymous. The loosely affiliated group declared cyberwar against the Russian government in response to the country's aggression in Ukraine, and has already leaked numerous sensitive documents and crashed the official Kremlin website multiple times.

On March 21, it was reported that a sect of Anonymous had begun targeting poorly secured printers all across Russia, using them to send "anti-propaganda" messages directly to the Russian people.

"Citizens of Russia, act now to stop terrorist[s]. Putin killing over thousands in Ukraine," the PDF file they sent read when run through translation software. "The people of Russia should find horror in Putin's actions."