Russia 'Kyiv' deepfake influence campaign

Facebook parent company Meta says it has shut down a fake, pro-Russian influence campaign attempting to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

According to Meta, the campaign took the form of dozens of fake profiles using AI-generated pictures, including of an aviation engineer, news editors, and scientific authors. 

Posing as independent news desks operating out of Kyiv, the fake profiles were used to publish content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, and Russian social networks Odnoklassniki and VK.

The profiles were taken down for violating Meta's coordinated inauthentic behaviour policy.

Ukrainian authorities also shut down a Russian bot farm in Lviv capable of deploying 18,000 fake accounts, and a smaller one that posted fake information about Ukraine on Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber.