Russian bots use fake celebrity quotes to spread propaganda
4:29 PM EDT, June 17, 2024
Stars like Sir Elton John, Lionel Messi, and Jennifer Aniston have been photographed with alarming pro-Russian quotes. These actions are typical propaganda efforts orchestrated by the Kremlin, and they are nothing more than an attempt to influence public opinion about the conflict driven by Russian bots.
Western social media users are the target of a social media campaign. Posts in English, French, or German have literally flooded the network in recent days.
All quotes are fake and come from well-known Kremlin disinformation bots spreading lies via the X platform (formerly Twitter).
On a post featuring Elton John's image, we can read the fake quote, "We fell into the Ukrainian trap. Now the EU is falling apart." Meanwhile, a graphic with Jennifer Aniston's photo states, "We have grown poor. It's time to forget about Ukraine."
According to "The Sun," bots carried out the attack using the Dvoynyk disinformation network, which published 50 fake celebrity quotes with photos on the X platform.
Photos of Scarlett Johansson (with the quote "All countries are starting to think about themselves, the European Union is falling apart") and Angelina Jolie, who allegedly claimed that the European Parliament is "corrupted," have also surfaced online.
The independent Russian news service Agentsvo exposed the mass disinformation campaign involving stars as an attempt by Vladimir Putin to win the propaganda war. According to Bot Blocker, fake quotes with photos have been displayed over half a million times just since Friday.
This is not the first such instance. Over the past six months, there have been six similar attacks.
Propaganda posts appeared a few days after the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called for peace talks with Russia. He made this move after a two-day peace conference in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited.
During the conference, over 80 countries signed a document calling for Ukraine's "territorial integrity" to end the war. After the conference, Zelensky said: "Russia can start negotiations tomorrow if it withdraws from our territories."
