Six Russian agencies have been sanctioned by the UK for spreading misinformation about the Princess of Wales’ health problems.
The Foreign Office has warned of a ‘vast online network’ of bad actors who seek to undermine democracy by sowing confusion and spreading fake news online.
Among these are the ‘Doppelganger Group,’ a Russian-based disinformation network who were accused of amplifying a wave of conspiracies about Kate Middleton earlier this when she was out of the public eye due to her cancer diagnosis.
First exposed in 2022 and later sanctioned by the EU, the Doppelganger Group has continually sought to mislead Europeans by pushing pro-Kremlin narratives through purchasing Facebook ads and managing an army of fake social media accounts.
Controversy and conspiracy
Rather than create rumours or outright lies out of thin air, the group instead operates by fanning the flames of an existing story which is mired in controversy, making their propaganda much more effective and the perpetrators harder to track down.
Research by the University of Cardiff on the Kate conspiracy theories showed how those responsible created a ‘master’ account which acted as the source of the rumours, which other accounts then fed off by sharing and replying to, therefore drawing in other users.
Many of the accounts used identical phrasing, such as ‘Why do these big media channels want to make us believe these are Kate and William?’ which made them easier to spot, while others were created just a few days ago and posted nothing but royal rumours.
Others on Instagram and Twitter were also aggressive in pushing hashtags such as #KateGate and #WhereIsKate which encouraged speculation about the Princess’s health and location.
One frequently shared video which appeared in the social media exchanges over Kate, was later found to have originated with a Russian disinformation group who were also revealed to have been running destabilising campaigns in Germany and France.
UK embassies in Russia and Ukraine were also forced to put out statements in March denying King Charles had died following a similar disinformation campaign.
Researchers found thousands of ads flooding Facebook pages that were ‘basically just created to pay for an ad, immediately reach a significant amount of accounts and then just be deleted,’ said Paul Bouchaud, a researcher with AI Forensics.
He told Politico: ‘It’s more effective than to grow a community where they have to attract real people to engage with accounts.
Misinformation by the groups ‘plagues social media with fake posts, counterfeit documents and deepfake material’, the Foreign Office reported.
The aim of the campaigns is ultimately to erode western support for Ukraine, and the Royal Family are thought to have been targeted due to their ongoing support of Kyiv since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Announcing the sanctions, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: ‘Putin is so desperate to undermine European support for Ukraine he is now resorting to clumsy, ineffective efforts to try and stoke unrest.
‘Today’s sanctions send a clear message; we will not tolerate your lies and interference, and we are coming after you.’
Among the groups and individuals sanctioned by the UK are the Social Design Agency, Structura National Technologies, Ano Dialog and Ilya Andreevich Gambashidze, Nikolay Aleksandrovich Tupikin and Andrey Naumovich Perla.
‘Attacking a British institution’
Vladimir Putin last week said it was ‘utter rubbish’ to suggest Russia was inciting street protests throughout Europe, and the Kremlin has rejected any accusations of online interference.
‘What’s happening on the streets of certain European cities is a result of domestic politics,’ he told reporters.
Prof Martin Innes, director of the Security, Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute at Cardiff University, told the BBC: ‘Doppelganger’s signature methodology is deploying very large numbers of disposable social media accounts to flood the information space around particular stories.
‘This can prove especially influential when they are able to amplify narratives that appear less overtly political.
‘This is precisely what they did in trying to exploit the rumours and conspiracies about the Princess of Wales.
‘In repeating and reheating these, they were able to disperse their anti-Ukrainian messaging, whilst also attacking a key British institution – the Royal Family.’
Researchers at Cardiff say the disinformation specialists have studied the Brexit referendum in order to create ‘wedge issues’ such as immigration and identity politics which will divide the public and create chaos.
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