1+1 Media reports possibly commissioned cyber attacks on presenter Natalya Moseychuk

Natalya Moseychuk. Photo by the 1+1 Media press office

1+1 Media reports systematic online campaigns targeting the 1+1 TV and YouTube presenter Natalya Moseychuk, according to the statement posted on the media group's website on May 7.

In particular, over the past two months, there has been an surge of bot activity on the presenter's social media, with the bots promoting identical narratives. Such comments largely occur on TikTok.

The media group notes that the vast majority of attacks bear signs of being commissioned and are related to mobilization. The last attack was about the May 2 episode of the project "Topic with Moseychuk". Anonymous Telegram channels and online media outlets took Natalya's words out of context and misrepresented them as threats to conscripted men and lawyers, which was not the case, notes 1+1 media.

Moseychuk made the statement in question at the end of the stream, saying: "I want to appeal to all the pseudo-lawyers who regard themselves as such and will be falling over themselves on TikTok to say a bunch of crap about each of us, especially after this stream. I want to say that they will not be singing their song for long, because the Security Service of Ukraine will come knocking on everyone's door. And Ukraine is seeing the end of the honeymoon period. [...] You better not say anything stupid or harmful to the state. As for men, I think that the majority will pass the enlistment center and the physicals, there is no other way. The frontline situation does not allow us to make jokes."

Natalya Moseychuk emphasized that she was addressing those who "position claim to be 'lawyers' and try in every possible way to discredit the mobilization effort in the country, the military and political leadership, and the Ukrainian state as a whole on their social media."

"Some of these people, in particular Ostap Stakhiv, whom I mentioned twice during the livestream, are under criminal investigation for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. Stakhiv, by the way, actively travels from village to village 'to free people from the enlistment centers' snares'. In 2022, he stated that 'the enlistment centers kidnap and torture people'.

"I consider posting an excerpt of this stream in such a form and with such captions as taking my words out of context. Posting comments from an unknown source by unverified accounts is manipulation of public opinion about me. Therefore, I call on the media to be aware of this, and on the public not to give in to manipulation aimed at destabilizing the society," noted Natalya Moseychuk.

The media group considers such misrepresentation of information to be manipulative and potentially favouring Russia, as it destabilizes the Ukrainian society from the inside and diverts attention from what matters.

"Therefore, we urge the journalistic community to carefully study the situation before covering certain events that may concern Natalya Moseychuk or any other public person, as well as to request official comments," the statement reads.

On April 8, 2024, 1+1 Media said that Kremlin bot farms were spreading a fake video branded "1+1 Ukraine" on social media. The video announced a project titled "United States of Treason".