14 February 2023
– Director of Eliminalia once again involved
In January 2022, Qurium stumbled upon a number of fake news sites that flooded the web with made-up content to suppress legitimate articles and investigations by human rights groups and renowned journalists. All these “flooding websites” originated with “Communication Media Group”, CMG, located between a hardware store and a land fill1 in the offshore haven of Nevis in the Caribbean.
The modus operandi of CMG is very similar to the deceptive strategies used by Eliminalia that Qurium disclosed in April 2021. Qurium has found over 600 fake news sites operated by CMG who all drench the web and Google Search with articles on popular music, combat fighting, and food recipes, always in combination with the name of their customers. Thus, hundreds of stories on the same companies’ corruption, narco-traffic, fraud, surveillance, or money laundering are downgraded and killed in search results – in practice erased from public memory. The Italian company Area S.p.A was recently fined with 100,000 USD for selling surveillance equipment to the Syrian dictatorship, but is now named by CMG websites in conjunction with immensely popular Korean K-pop.
Washington Post is exposing CMG in Leaked files reveal reputation-management firm’s deceptive tactics based on Qurium´s research where it´s explained how 600 domains were traced to the single company CMG and how the modus operandi and IP spaces coincide with those of Eliminalia.
The big mistake of CMG and Eliminalia was using the domain computer-news.it. In January 2023 WHOIS data exposed that one of the 600+ CMG websites was no longer owned by CMG:s “Douglas Williams”. It was still distributing fake news about Area S.p.A but was now owned by Mariia Ladovchyna (Ладовчина Марія Сергіївна), director of Eliminalia (ЕЛІМІНАЛІЯ ЛТД — Код ЄДРПОУ 41240682) in Ukraine.
Since June 2022 Qurium has been cooperating with Forbidden Stories on Story Killers, an international investigation on disinformation by more than 100 journalists from 30 media organizations world wide. Based on Qurium’s research, media outlets like Washington Post, The Guardian, El Pais, OCCRP and Forbidden Stories are today releasing their investigations on Eliminalia and its clients.
Qurium started investigating Eliminalia after receiving numerous emails in November 2020 from fake lawyers asking to have articles related to corruption in Angola involving Isabel dos Santos and Vincent Miclet removed from the web. Two of the +100 independent media organizations that Qurium hosts, Maka Angola and The Elephant, were targeted in the content take-down campaign.
General claims of copyright (DMCA) or data protection legislation (GDPR) breeches was the most common approach, but more subtle methods were used to degrade content as Qurium exposed in detail in Episode I, II and VI in its series “Dark Ops Undercovered“.
Qurium forensics report: Episode VIII: Eliminalia re-appears to sink unwanted content
Contacts
Digital forensics: Tord Lundström <t@virtualroad.org> Technical Director
Media: Clara Zid <info@virtualroad.org> Media and Outreach Manager
1 Horsford’s Business Centre Long Point Road, Suites 5 & 6, Charlestown, Nevis
Story Killers articles on Eliminalia
Forbidden Stories: The Gravediggers: How Eliminalia, a Spanish reputation management firm, buries the truth
Washington Post: Leaked files reveal reputation-management firm’s deceptive tactics
The Guardian: The Spanish firm that uses dubious methods to ‘erase your past’ from the internet
OCCRP:
- Eliminalia: A Reputation Laundromat for Criminals
- Figures Behind Eliminalia Also Run Surrogacy Businesses Accused of Baby Trafficking
El Pais (Spain): Una firma española limpia en la red la imagen de corruptos, abusadores y narcos de 54 países
Le Monde (France):
- Eliminalia, le nettoyeur du Web aux clients peu recommandables
- Eliminalia, a Spanish reputation management firm burying the truth for disreputable clients
iStories (Russia): Борцы с компроматом: как испанская Еliminalia отмывала репутацию клиентов с помощью фейков и угроз
Proceso (Mexico): Las artimañas de Eliminalia para limpiar la imagen de políticos, empresarios y criminales
Armando (Venezuela): Eliminalia: su nombre lo dice todo
Zeit (Germany)
- Eliminalia: Die Spurenlöscher (part 1)
- Eliminalia: Die Spurenlöscher (part 2)
Le Soir (Belgium): Story Killers: les fossoyeurs Eliminalia, l’agence d’e-réputation qui enterre la vérité
Investigative Reporting Project Italy: I segreti di Eliminalia, la “lavanderia” della reputazione online
Knack (Belgium): #StoryKillers: hoe een Spaans bedrijf voor reputatiemanagement uw online verleden uitwist