Almost 400 websites spread Russian propaganda in Bulgaria

Almost 400 ‘mushroom’ sites – created in bulk by malicious actors with the sole purpose of seeding disinformation and fake news – are spreading Russian propaganda in Bulgaria.

The data is analysed by the Human and Social Studies Foundation, which investigates Russian online propaganda and was presented last week in Sofia. According to the analysis, one of the reasons for the rapid growth of Russian propaganda in the country is the growth of the network of mushroom sites that spread it.

“In 2022, Russian propaganda spread powerfully in the Bulgarian online space. Compared to the previous year, 2021, by the end of 2022, it rose almost 20 times. Propaganda increased in two periods – at the beginning and the end of the year,” the analysis says.

“At the beginning of the year, a small network of aggregators was formed, which reinforced the Russian point of view. By the end of the year, it was transformed into a powerful machine of mushroom sites (370 sites were identified), which increased the dissemination of each message by about 400 times. The sites from the machine probably work through the Share4Pay platform – it pays users to share on social networks ready-made information from these sites,” the authors say.

At the start of 2022, top site ranking includes aggregators and real media. At the end of the year, media sites fell out of the top ten, meaning that in 2022, machine distribution prevails.

The authors also report exceptionally high activity on Facebook throughout 2022. The study counted 25,692 posts in groups and 19,987 in pages, with posts gathering more than 7.6 million interactions.

“Pages that are not presented as informative, but as commercial or entertaining share propaganda, and thus it meets a wider interest,” the analysis reads.

According to the authors, some of the disinformation has not taken hold, for example, belief in the power of Russian weapons is decreasing, and the approval of Russian President Vladimir Put has fallen threefold.

“Other narratives, however, have a significant impact on public sentiment – for example, that Bulgaria occupies the side of Ukraine because the Bulgarian rulers are dependent on the Euro-Atlantic partners (and not because Ukraine is the attacked country); the claim that the West dragged Russia into war; that the military aid to Ukraine drags Bulgaria into war,” the authors say.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)