The account, "War on Fakes," was created on February 24, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" and troops began invading Ukraine. The page is rife with disinformation, according to The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies digital extremism and published a report examining the channel. Now safely in France with his spouse and three of his children, Kliuchnikov scrolls through Telegram to learn about the devastation happening in his home country. Perpetrators of such fraud use various marketing techniques to attract subscribers on their social media channels. In 2018, Russia banned Telegram although it reversed the prohibition two years later. Despite Telegram's origins, its approach to users' security has privacy advocates worried.
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