Kremlin-linked troll farms are the target of a handful of Russians, who are trying to take them down, The Washington Post reported.
This comes amid mounting concerns that the Russian troll army’s operations were increasing the reach of Kremlin propaganda within the U.S. and Europe.
In Russia, a small group of journalists, legal experts and activists have been campaigning to expose the operation despite the risks tied to challenging such an entity protected by government and law enforcement agencies.
Among this group is 36-year-old Lyudmila Savchuk, a former employee of the Internet Research Agency, which hired people specifically to write up pro-Kremlin propaganda.
Last year the mother of two successfully sued the company for alleged non-payment of wages and for failing to give workers proper employment contracts, The Guardian noted.
Since winning the lawsuit, Savchuk has embarked on numerous campaigns to highlight the Russian troll farm’s operations, her experiences as well as video footage and documents in an effort to shut the factory down.
The presence of these propaganda trolls is evident on social media and, while investigations have been mostly centered on the influence Kremlin’s meddling had on the 2016 presidential election, Savchuk is worried about how it is affecting Russia.
"Every online forum, every comment section on every local site, everywhere I look, most of the commenters are trolls," she said in an interview to The Washington Post. "It’s like half the country is trolls."
Savchuk has had to endure a counterattack from the state-run media and, while she remains passionate about the cause, she said the fight has taken its toll.
Meanwhile, the lawyer who won her case, Ivan Pavlov, is determined not to give up, telling The Washington Post that he intended to "remove the mask of anonymity, so that people know who is responsible for this activity, for the Internet attacks, for trolling."
He explained that, although the system was created to protect, it also made mistakes.
"That’s where we have to be ready, he said.
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