The big Facebook lie: Putin’s troll army continues to agitate and manipulate

“Miranda Gilson” is a “casino” on Facebook, “Nobody Perfect” is a local recreation area on the social network. And “Roderica Appelhans” poses as a comedian.

As different as the names are, all sites have one thing in common: they are part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The reports mainly post caricatures that include portraying Germany as an American puppet and branding the Greens as warmongers.

The problem is not new. On the contrary. The Facebook parent company Meta actually wanted these fake accounts to stop. But apparently nothing recognizable has happened since then. Meta fails in the fight against the mood-making. And the group even makes money from it.

Attack has been going on for months

The background: t-online had already discovered a coordinated attack in August that had been going on for weeks. The atmosphere was created with fake accounts, i.e. pages of well-known media brands that are deceptively real, with fake articles and videos. The direction was always the same: it was against Russia’s sanctions and against Germany’s support for Ukraine. The message has always been: the Berlin government is responsible for the high inflation in the Federal Republic.

After a tip from t-online, the Facebook parent company Meta announced that it took the fake accounts seriously. In fact, experts are working on it, and on September 27, the group confirmed the research in an analysis that has attracted worldwide attention: it is propaganda aimed primarily at Germany and coming from a fake network in Russia. The company also said the issue has now been resolved. This, and a network from China operating in the United States, has shut down Meta “for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

That sounded good, but it wasn’t true. The report of the successful fight against the network – actually a big lie. Facebook has massively deleted accounts. However, the Russian troll network has not shut down, but seems to be happily continuing. And Facebook does not intervene or only intervenes after information from the press. After t-online asked Facebook with links on September 29 and provided further evidence in the meantime, Facebook officially says it is being monitored. Unofficially, it is said that it is not uncommon for such actors to continue even after discovery. Facebook relies on automatic detection, but also has a team to track down such cases.

Propaganda War on Facebook

Jens Zimmermann, digital policy spokesperson for the SPD faction, is surprised: “It is not enough if journalists always have to expose things before problems are recognized and addressed,” he said on t-online. The Russian propaganda war is being waged on Facebook in Germany and Europe, “the metagroup must finally accept that.”

But of course, even among people interested in politics, there is not always a high level of awareness. For example, Alexander Rulitschka distributed the caricature of a Russian fake account. Rulitschka is president of the Junge Union München-Nord. The association has attracted attention several times in the past with particularly provocative posts and in 2017 it won the Facebook award from the young political organization of the CDU and CSU.

Rulitschka’s sharing of an image of the Russian campaign probably has to do with his distaste for the Greens: the shared motive was essentially directed against them – like many of the images apparently shot in Russia. The party had already been clearly critical of Russia before the federal elections last year and is now acting as a target.

User dissatisfaction with counterfeits

JU official Rulitschka told t-online that he did not know the background of the image and had removed the image. He now describes the procedure as perfidious: “It is also becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to tell things apart.”

Many of the motives could actually come from Germans being angry about politics or worried about the future. If more and more people don’t blame Russia for this, that suits Putin. In Rulitschka’s case, at least the Russian strategy of supplying ammunition for attacks on the federal government had worked.

However, the comments below the photos also give the impression that many Facebook users see through the game. Users often confirm the fake accounts very clearly that they are dealing with Putin propaganda. Her dissatisfaction with the fact that the group does not respond despite corresponding messages is correspondingly great. That is what Markus Enderer of Upper Palatinate says to t-online. “I’ve been reporting for weeks, sometimes several times. There is usually little sign of success.” Ads he reported disappeared when t-online sent them to Facebook.

Account reporting is more likely to succeed

The problem is that users often don’t know where to report the paid messages from the fake accounts. There is no “foreign opinion manipulation” category, and Facebook is apparently not thinking of creating a corresponding section. Especially because the group rightly fears abuse.

It should therefore be more promising not to report individual posts on Facebook, but rather the entire account. Because on Facebook, checking the content creators is of course more important than the content itself. There is also a plausible explanation for this: if accounts are suspended, the problem with their content has also been solved. The reverse would not be the case.

But if the army of Putin trolls is inexhaustible, this strategy will not work. The Russian agitators continue to create new accounts for their campaign, some of them suddenly become active after several months of nothing happening. Internally at Facebook, it is admitted that the campaign is unstoppable, but only adds to the effort for the unknown people behind the fake accounts.

Facebook makes millions from fakes

The problem: Meta even makes money from his inactivity. The accounts now rely primarily on paid advertising rather than commenting on posts on major sites, as was the case in the past. In late September, Facebook said Putin’s information warriors had invested about $100,000 in advertising in this campaign — but the deadline remained open and the ruble is still rolling there.

The US site ‘vice.com’ had investigated that between July 2018 and April 2022, Facebook raised 30.3 million euros from actors who were later known to be involved in coordinated campaigns with fake accounts. Meta keeps the money. Twitter, on the other hand, impressed by donating $1.9 million in revenue from Russian media to academia for research into disinformation.

The Meta is also under financial pressure at the moment: for the first time in the group’s history, the turnover no longer increases, but shrinks, the share drops. The company also expects weak ad demand in the near future. Higher hurdles to advertising aren’t really to be expected, and Zuckerberg announced savings in all areas. It should please the ruler of the Kremlin and his trolls.

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