Inside a Troll Farm
A commercial troll farm, in Poland, with connections to the state defence industry and supported by money from the State Fund for Disabled People – exposed by Fundacja Reporterow and Investigate Europe.
October 2019
A commercial troll farm, in Poland, with connections to the state defence industry and supported by money from the State Fund for Disabled People – exposed by Fundacja Reporterow and Investigate Europe.
For the past six-months young Polish journalist, Katarszyna Pruszkiewicz, joined our investigation on disinformation and worked – with the support of IE member Wojciech Ciesla and his Polish journalism NGO Fundacja Reporterow – undercover for a commercial troll farm in Wroclaw. Together with her troll-colleagues she has managed almost 200 fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, has written thousands of messages and comments, promoted her clients’ products and trolled their competitors, run hidden support campaigns for, and smear campaigns against, politicians.
Read the first hand-report “Undercover at a Troll Farm” on our website.
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Publications
Diese Reporterin hat sechs Monate in einer polnischen Troll-Farm gearbeitet
BuzzFeed, Germany
16 December 2020
Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
The Guardian, UK
31 October 2019
Máquina de desinformação. Uma jornalista numa fábrica de trolls
Diário de Notícias, Portugal
27 October 2019
Największa znana polska farma trolli bierze państwowe dotacje. Pracowała m.in. dla TVP
Newsweek Poland, Poland
26 October 2019