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Since June 18, when Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan was placed under arrest, an apparent campaign simulating public support has intensified across Armenian-language social media.
The Fact Investigation Platform has identified several dozen active accounts (the list is being updated*) that predominantly post comments in support of Karapetyan under Facebook posts by major media outlets with large audiences.
In its review, FIP.am examined coverage of Karapetyan published on the Facebook pages of a number of widely followed news organizations. These accounts display several notable similarities.
In particular, most of the fake accounts were created in the spring of 2023. Evidence of their near-simultaneous creation is also reflected in their User IDs—numeric identifiers assigned by Facebook at the time of account registration—which commonly contain the sequence “100090.”
Screenshots from fake accounts
Our monitoring of several media outlets indicates that these fake accounts exhibit clearly synchronized and uniform behavior. In particular, shortly after a post is published, they flood the comment sections of media pages with near-identical messages praising and supporting Karapetyan, differing only slightly in wording.
For example, today, July 21, this network of fake profiles once again displayed conspicuous activity: within just one hour, dozens of supportive comments were posted under the latest piece in the series published in social media titled “What Has the Current Government Achieved,” dedicated to the detained Russian businessman.
Screenshots from Facebook posts by Hraparak․am, Armlur, and 168.am.
It is also noteworthy that the same fake accounts often repost identical comments across publications by different media outlets.
Our observations further show that all of these fake profiles present themselves as young women. However, while the surnames used are Armenian, the profile photos belong to women of other nationalities and have been taken from social media platforms and other online sources.
For instance, the profile operating under the name Rima Samsonyan uses a photo from a video featuring a model, originally published on the Russian social network “Odnoklassniki.”
Screenshots from a News.am Facebook post, an OK.ru video, and a fake account
Another account, operating under the name Polina Manucharyan, has used a photo of Russian figure skater and Olympic champion Alina Zagitova. The image was taken from the athlete’s Instagram page and had previously been circulated in Russian media outlets.
Screenshot from the Russian RBK agency
The Fact Investigation Platform has consistently investigated and exposed networks of fake accounts on social media that simulate public support for political and public figures, documenting their behavior and key characteristics.
FIP.am’s focus has included coordinated inauthentic activity supporting both opposition figures and representatives of the ruling authorities. Among these were groups of fake accounts of apparent Asian origin that engaged with posts on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Facebook page by systematically liking them.
Nane Manasyan
