Two of the most popular viral news aggregators in Ukraine ran a series of inauthentic Facebook pages to amplify external links to their own content and build their national audience, a DFRLab investigation has found.

On September 16, 2019, Facebook took down 149 pages, along with other assets, associated with Znaj Media Holdings, a large Ukrainian media conglomerate, for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The DFRLab examined 121 of the pages, 64 of which corresponded to the five Ukrainian media outlets of Znaj Media Holdings: Znaj.ua, Politeka.net, Akcenty, Hyser, and Clutch.ua. Znaj appeared also to be a possible subsidiary of a private PR firm, Pragmatico.

In its announcement, Facebook stated:

The Page admins and account owners typically posted about celebrities, show business, sports, local and international news, political and economic issues including Ukrainian elections, political candidates, and criticism of various public figures. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review linked this activity to Pragmatico, a Ukrainian PR firm.

Beyond its connection to Pragmatico, this network appeared to be a systematic attempt at audience-building: the pages coordinated with one another to amplify the content of the multiple viral news aggregators under the Znaj Media umbrella. They did so by coupling generic news and lifestyle content with hyper-local coverage.

It was also a sizeable operation, as many of the pages had thousands of followers, and some reached several million. On its website, Znaj Media states its mission is “informing people” and claims it holds a leading position in the Ukrainian media market. Indeed, two of its subsidiaries, Znaj.ua and Politeka.net, both fall within the top three most visited websites in Ukraine. The pages may have had a commercial purpose, as the Znaj Media website includes a price list for ad placements on the websites of the various outlets under the Znaj Media umbrella. There is no information available as to who owns the media conglomerate, but the declared financial beneficiary is identified as a non-resident of Ukraine.

Znaj.ua, Politeka.net, and a pragmatic connection

Facebook attributed the operation to a Ukrainian PR firm by the name of Pragmatico. Among the pages in the set was one by the same name.