1 February 2024
2 February 2024
In November 2023 the Ukrainian president appeared in a video clip seemingly filmed from Times Square, showing Zelenskyy advertising for a drug rehab center in Los Angeles. Although it was clear that the video was an action against Zelenskyy, the question was rather how it had been done. Had the attacker paid for an advertisement on the billboard, had the control system of the billboard been hacked, or was it a cleverly crafted post-production of a real video?
The fake video, shared with almost 200 media outlets and fact-checking organizations, was clearly action from Russian disinformation groups to discredit the Ukrainian president and fuel the reputation of a presumed drug addiction.
Qurium’s forensic report focuses on how the disinformation campaign was revealed concentrating on three mistakes made by the creators of the video.
The video is part of a new campaign run in X (formerly Twitter) that uses a technique labeled by AFP as “Matriochka”. The campaign makes use of two different tiers of puppets. The first layer of puppets is responsible of posting the fake content and the second group of accounts is responsible of quoting the material when addressing the media outlets and fact checkers.
Report: Russian disinformation against Zelenskyy exposed on Times Square billboard
Contacts
Digital forensics: Tord Lundström <t at virtualroad.org> Technical Director
Media: Clara Zid <info at virtualroad.org> Media and Outreach Manager