Unknown persons create a clone of the Ternopil website "Politerno", post a fake news report
Unknown persons created a clone of Ternopil media website "Politerno" and posted a fake news report there, writes the media outlet.
The clone resource has a different web address than the real Politerno. The link to the real website is https://politerno.com.ua/, and https://politerno.website/ in the copy, though visually they are not much different. All menu buttons of the clone website lead to the original resource.
The clone website hosts a fake article about the "uncovering of a bot farm" that allegedly targeted the mayor, titled, "A hostile bot farm spreading fake news about Nadal uncovered in Ternopil oblast".
The lead of the article alludes to a report recently posted on the original Politerno – an investigation into the wealth of the Mayor's daughter. However, the two reports are different.
To substantiate their fake report, the criminals used an official notification by the Security Service of Ukraine, which on May 3 reported the uncovering of a large bot farm operating in several oblasts. At that time, the SBU reported that "the perpetrators tried to discredit the work of our country's top military and political leadership in wartime," adding that they had been spreading false information about terrorist attacks in Ukrainian cities and the "mining" of crowded places. Yet, the SBU did not say a word about the Ternopil mayor.
The "Politerno" editors also note that unknown persons made the fake report advertisable and paid for it from a Facebook page which also closely resembles the "Ternopil Today" community page.
"The Politerno editors are in conctact with the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine regarding the abovementioned situation," the staff noted.
We remind you that in June 2022, unknown persons created a copy of another Ternopil website, "Poglyad", and were spreading fake news through an advertisement from a cloned Facebook page as well.
RBC-Ukraine, "Ukrainian Pravda", Obozrevatel, and Ukrinform have also reported clones of their websites being created.
Help us be even more cool!
