April 6, 2022 · less than 3 min read
Introducing ‘Cyber Front Z’: a new Russian regiment in the digital warzone.
By the trolls, for the people
Russia’s online war game is weak. Stuttering on all fronts, Russia’s online (dis)information plans have been a clear second-best to Ukraine’s premium communications strategy. So much so that Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has gone from being an obscure head of state to one of the world’s most lauded faces of bravery and heroism.
Now though, a new Kremlin-funded troll farm has emerged. As the self-proclaimed ‘People’s Movement’, Cyber Front Z states that it is working to battle floods of fake news and disinformation coming from Ukraine. Straight from the belly of the Kremlin’s propaganda drive, no less…
Catching Zs
Dishing out instructions to its 65,000 Telegram followers, Cyber Front Z’s top dog, Aleksander Kapitanov, directs its loyal army to spam high-profile Ukrainians or spread disinformation using VPN loopholes. If you’re willing to take Putin’s roubles, avoiding social media censors is excellent paid work.
With its HQ in St Petersburg, the group is seeing members post hundreds of comments each day in defense of Putin, claiming the Russian army is ridding Ukraine of Nazis. But perhaps it’s time Russia took a hard look in the mirror: when you’re paying trolls to get people on side, maybe you’re the bad guys?
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