This is part of an ongoing series where I review some of the ads purchased by the Russians. In doing so I hope we can get a better understanding of what they were trying to do, and how to recognize it the next time we’re faced with propaganda.
If you want to follow along, the ads can all be downloaded here. All of today’s ads can be found in the 2017-q1/2017-01 folder.
There were more than just pop culture ads in the Memeopolis group during January 2017. P(1)0006194 did have an odd mix of politics and pop culture:
P(1)0006192 gets into why we don’t use base ten for telling time:
P(1)0006182 linked to click bait about how, not only is there more sheep than humans in Wales, but how Brexit is a threat to both:
One thing you’ll notice is that all these ads link to DuDeers.com. From all accounts, this website was owned by Russian entities, and has been inactive since mid-2017 (although selected page shots are available on the Wayback Machine). A Google search led me to a Facebook page listing DuDeers.com as well as two other websites:
Of those three, Yasidy appears to be the only one with a real internet presence, a Facebook page that, while not deleted, hasn’t been updated since 2015:
And their website, which has three empty subfolders last accessed December 22 of 2020:
As of now I can’t figure out if the goal was to show targeted ads on those pages, or if it was for distribution of malware. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find any more information. If I do, I’ll post it. Even if I can’t, the dates on the sites lean towards this being in the works for longer than most of us assumed, and it suggests that they’re still active even now.
THIS IS AN OPEN THREAD. Take care, and be well.