The Kremlin’s Digital Pirates: How Russian Tracking Pixels Harvest Romanians’ Data to Fund Conspiracies and Extremism
For five months, we tracked over 100,000 ads displayed across 131 websites in Eastern Europe. After decoding the hidden mechanisms behind these ads, we uncovered a network of Russian companies. This investigation reveals what data is harvested from Romanians, who ends up receiving it, and why the ads shown on platforms with conspiratorial and extremist content are among the most valuable to this network.
The Kremlin’s Digital Pirates: How Russian Tracking Pixels Harvest Romanians’ Data to Fund Conspiracies and Extremism
For five months, we tracked over 100,000 ads displayed across 131 websites in Eastern Europe. After decoding the hidden mechanisms behind these ads, we uncovered a network of Russian companies. This investigation reveals what data is harvested from Romanians, who ends up receiving it, and why the ads shown on platforms with conspiratorial and extremist content are among the most valuable to this network.
CheckFirst’s 6th Birthday: a year of innovations
We are delighted and proud to celebrate our sixth anniversary! We marked this occasion by reflecting on our achievements and learnings over the past year.
Roska Bridge: How a pro-Russian IMS exploits vulnerabilities of decentralised platforms to spread propaganda
Our new investigation reveals how a sophisticated Russian information manipulation set (IMS), dubbed “Roska Bridge”, uses alternative and decentralised social media platforms as a weapon to flood Western and domestic Russian audiences with aggressive, anti-Western, and anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
Noise without effect: anti-Pashinyan disinformation on the rise ahead of Armenian parliamentary elections
We spent one month ahead of Armenian parliamentary elections monitoring disinformation spread by foreign Information Manipulation Sets and tracking what recommendation algorithms were pushing to diaspora users searching for content about the vote.
Introducing Tutki: We simulated social media to teach how it gets weaponised
We run OSINT investigations. We contributed to create methodological and ethical guidelines to frame the practice. Logically, we developed a platform to help organisations strengthen their staff’s resilience against information manipulation, foreign influence, and disinformation campaigns.
Watch the replay: Ethics in the fight against disinformation: from theory to practice
On May 19th, Nelly Pailleux discussed the ethical implications while conducting OSINT investigations in light of the ObSINT guidelines.
CheckFirst and Filigran connect the Pravda network to OpenCTI
Meet CheckFirst’s Import Connector, which brings in real-time data directly from the Pravda network.
Watch the replay: Decoding Russian intelligence: what medals and insignia reveal
On April 23rd, Hervé Letoqueux presented findings from two recent investigations merging OSINT and phaleristics.
CheckFirst and Samsa immerse French journalists in a virtual foreign interference campaign
We constructed a one-day training with the French training organisation Samsa to help French journalists to learn how to identify and analyze information manipulation, disinformation campaigns, and coordinated inauthentic behavior in electoral context.
Unveiling GRU’s Information Operations Troops with OSINT and Medals
We tracked the infrastructure of one of the most secretive units of Russian intelligence by using phaleristics (i.e. the academic study of medals and military decorations) and traditional OSINT techniques.