Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a social media hashtag (#IStandWithRussia) began to go viral online, ultimately creating an inauthentic perception of support for Russia. ISD researchers were able to pinpoint the push behind the hashtag to an Australian-based user, who set up multiple profiles, pages, channels, and groups years ago.
Moustafa Ayad spoke with Politico on our findings, disclosing that the user posted that he began the hashtag back in 2014 “so that wen [sic] situations like this happened, there would be an easy way to connect with each other and a massive amount of support for Russia.”