Russian Embassy in Czechia May Have Housed Troll Farm

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Activity attributed to Russian internet trolls dropped significantly in the Czech Republic after some workers at the Russian Embassy in Prague were deported, according to a report by the Seznamzpravy.cz news site.

Czech authorities’ expulsion of 18 people described as officers of the Russian secret services occurred in April after Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and interior minister Jan Hamáček said there was a reasonable suspicion that Russian agents were involved in fatal explosions at an ammunition depot in the Czech village of Vrbětice in 2014.

Experts on disinformation and Czechia’s Security Information Service (BIS) have both reported that the activity of Russian trolls in the Czech language on the Internet decreased significantly once the expulsions took place. Not only have the number of misinformation posts dropped, but the amount of “likes,” upvotes, and similar responses boosting the popularity of misleading content, has also dropped.