Several clips used the logos and graphics of Bellingcat, the BBC, Euronews and Deutsche Welle, and drew on an address by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in which he spoke about Russian bot activity in Poland
One video falsely claimed that Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins had found that Tusk’s remarks were based on a report fabricated by German intelligence.
Another attributed to French journalist Caroline Fourest a claim that the PM had damaged his reputation by blaming Russian bots for events in Poland.
Neither Bellingcat nor Euronews published such material, and Fourest has not commented on Tusk’s address.
Impersonating Western media is a signature tactic of a Russian disinformation operation known as Matryoshka.
The X account antibot4navalny, which tracks pro-Russian influence operations, had warned about the videos.
Separate posts, mostly in English, showed footage said to depict a protest by 300,000 "Polish patriots" on Warsaw’s Poniatowski Bridge.
It was in fact filmed at the 2017 Independence March.
Near-identical posts were shared by accounts declaring support for the US Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, some of them run from Africa.
The Disinformation Analysis Centre at NASK, Poland’s national research institute, said some accounts had used old images to build emotional narratives around the crisis, and that further false narratives were likely.
The dispute over the country's Constitutional Tribunal escalated when judges elected by the current parliament said one of their number, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, was now leading the court.
She suspended its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański.
President Karol Nawrocki said the constitutional order had been violated and a state body seized by force.
Tusk said the attack on the court was part of a process of destroying the rule of law carried out by the Law and Justice (PiS) party and presidents Andrzej Duda and Nawrocki.
He added that groups seeking to destroy democracy were now benefiting from an "army of Russian bots" online.
(ał)
Source: PAP