A Trojan Horse, or What’s Wrong With the Molnia Viber Channel?

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the russian federation not only brought deaths of thousands of Ukrainians and significant destruction of infrastructure, but also led to a number of large-scale shifts in other areas, less obvious to external observers. In particular, the trend can be illustrated by the change in the attitude of Ukrainians to the consumption of information. Thus, in early June 2022, OPORA published the findings of a study conducted jointly with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which highlighted where Ukrainians read the news and which media they trust the most. The most important conclusion is that in the settings of war, the main source of information for Ukrainians is not TV but social networks: almost 77% of Ukrainians learn the news there. If we analyze it in more detail, another important conclusion appears that for the first time during the observations, the respondents indicated that they consume news not through Facebook or YouTube, but through the Telegram messenger. Another messenger, Viber, is used for news by 48% of Ukrainians who generally resort to social networks for updates.

The changes in the media consumption of Ukrainians showed another interesting trend: in the answer to the question about what social networks respondents use to consume news, some respondents indicated the "Molnia". They might have been referring to the Viber channel with more than 4 million subscribers, as of June 2022, which makes it the largest news channel in messengers in Ukraine. We decided to understand how this channel has gained such a great popularity among Ukrainians and whether it really disseminates the exceptionally "prompt and objective information," as its administrators claim.

Abot the Coverage

First of all, when talking about the "Molnia," we mean not only one big Viber channel. Now we can talk about a small media group that includes at least:

• a russian-language channel in Viber (3.975 mln subscribers);
• an English-language channel in Viber (74,000 subscribers);
• a russian-language channel in Telegram (143,000 subscribers);
• an English-language Twitter (21,000 followers).

Thus, the cumulative audience of this resource is now more than 4.2 million subscribers. This figure is quite large: for example, the official Viber channel of the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine, launched in March 2020, currently has half as many, or 2.1 million subscribers.

The "Molnia" outreach looks even more interesting if you consider the period when these resources received such a large number of supporters. Thus, the Russian-language Viber channel posted its first message on February, 22, 2022, 2 days before the full-scale invasion. The English-language channel was launched a bit later, on February, 27, 2022. At the same time, an English-language Twitter account appeared on March, 4, 2022, and the Telegram channel "Molnia" started posting messages on April, 22.

"Molnia" also offers to host advertising posts on their resources. We contacted the advertising department of the resource and found out that on average, one post is viewed by about half a million users. Placement of one advertising post costs from USD 1,500 dollars  and up (about UAH 45,000).

In view of all the above, there may arise a logical question: how was the Ukrainian news channel in Viber able to gain such a huge number of subscribers and even in such a short period of time?

How Does Molnia Gain Popularity?

Over the past few months, "Molnia" has been actively using a variety of methods to engage users. They include the promotion through mass media, experts, and political parties, as well as the dissemination of information through networks of Facebook pages.

The first and probably the most important PR step for attracting subscribers to "Molnia" came from the publications in mass media. We found that between 3 pm on February, 27 and 1 am on February, 28, Ukrainian news resources (Комментарии.ua, ukranews.com, my.ua, depo.ua, 24 канал) there were at least 5 articles inviting to subscribe to Viber "Molnia":

It is indicative that all these articles came with almost identical content:

Political expert Oleksii Holobutsky recommends using the verified Molnia Viber channel.

At the moment, one of the most important tasks is not to believe fakes. Moreover, this is important for both defensive Ukrainians and for russians who are limited in their sources of information. I recommend the proven viber channel "Molnia" — it already has almost 2 million subscribers. Join it," wrote Holobutsky.

This channel provides prompt and objective information about what is actually happening, the expert assures.

The appropriateness of using hidden advertising or "infomercials" on the third day of a full-scale war certainly raises certain questions, but in this case, the so-called expert who actively promotes "Molnia" on his Facebook attracts more interest. Oleksii Holobutsky is a political expert, one of the co-founders of the Situations Modeling Agency, which is included in the list of pseudo-sociological organizations created by Texty. As to Holobutsky himself, Texty ranks him as a hidden PR person for Natalia Korolevska's party "Ukraine — Forward!" in the 2012 Parliamentary elections, for Petro Poroshenko in 2019 Presidential elections, for Volodymyr Hroisman in 2019 Parliamentary elections, for Volodymyr Klychko and for Andrii Palchevskyi in 2020 Local elections.

It is worth noting that the news of February, 27 claim that the channel already had more than 2 million subscribers. At the same time, the first post was published there as early as 5 days before. In addition, in the first few days of its existence (February, 22-23), the channel had quite few subscribers: the number of "likes" on messages barely reached 200. Instead, since February, 24, the number of likes to the channel's publications began to grow rapidly and accelerated noticeably after February, 27, when the advertising campaign in the media began. At the beginning, the channel might have been expanding more or less naturally, but after February, 25, it began to promote advertising in Viber, and later, they reached out to external audiences:

However, Oleksandr Holobutsky is not the only one who actively promoted the "Molnia". The next PR step was to have posts on the pages of other well-known users. In particular, we found ads for various resources of "Molnia" on the pages of the editor-in-chief of the Livy Bereg online outlet, Sonia Koshkina (March, 1), a Ukrainian musician ЯрмаК (April, 2), and the political party NASH KRAI and NASH KRAI Chernihiv Region (March, 1).

Around the same time, in early March, an English-language Viber channel was also created. Calls to join the channel were somewhat different: they were disseminated through the Facebook groups of the Ukrainian diaspora. Thus, from February, 27 to March, 1, the following messages appeared on the pages of at least 26 diaspora groups (Наша🇺🇦🇬🇧Велика Британія, Ukrainians in Australia, Иммигранты Сакраменто • Sacramento Immigrants etc.:

In addition, at that time, they also tried to promote "Molnia" through some Russian platforms: the website of the Russian Chanson and the so-called "antenna project". However, these resources are hardly popular among the Russian audiences, and therefore they do not call for much attention from our side.

It is indicative that "Molnia" owners do not rush to openly promote their posts through Meta services (by creating pages on Facebook or Instagram). Instead, to share their posts, they use small pages from various subject areas. For example, their messages are actively promoted by the pages "Video Services Musicians for Weddings Photographer (8.17 million views since February, 24, 2022), Video Operator Yurii Orestovych (4.79 million views) and Ukrainian ethnic and wedding songs, CAROLS, which actively promote the news from the "Molnia".

Next to the reluctance to enter the markets of Facebook or Instagram, "Molnia" uses Telegram and Twitter to expand their audiences. At the same time, although the channel in Telegram was created on February, 25, the activity appeared only after a certain "saturation" with the subscribers in Viber — at the end of April. In general, it is noticeable that "Molnia" administrators have meticulously approached their privacy: it is hardly possible to track the administrators of pages and anonymous channels on Twitter, Telegram, and Viber today, and the resource is raising donations through a crypto wallet.

What "Molnia" Writes About and Why It Is a Problem

Most of "Molnia" content includes news about developments on the front, and in international politics, as well as comments of various expert organizations (for example, British intelligence), and even rumors. It is indicative that next to the news about Ukraine, the channel often posts messages about events in the russian federation.

The biggest problem of "Molnia" and other news channels in social media is probably the fact that they can cause the so-called "emotional roller-coasters" among consumers of information. The posts below illustrate this quite well: next to the news that russian troops are accumulating new forces in the eastern axis, they publish messages about the unwillingness of Western allies to transfer weapons to Ukrainians. Likewise, next to the news about the "strategic defeat of russia in Ukraine" there were reports of the probability of seizure of new territories.

Thus, through the illusion of "objective news coverage", it is actually quite easy to undermine the attitudes in society and create a good basis for the promotion of enemy information and psychological operations and messages useful to the enemy. In particular, the news about the accumulation of russian troops and the refusal of the United States to supply our country with a certain type of UAVs creates the feeling that Ukraine will not be able to win the war. This feeling, after all, benefits only the russian federation: gradually accumulating such messages, it can push Ukrainians to pressure the authorities to sign a peace treaty.

Another danger that is hidden both by the Viber channel "Molnia," and many other channels in Telegram and Viber, is that they post messages from users without filtering them. For example, photos and videos of the consequences of hostile shelling are often posted on such channels. Public authorities have repeatedly urged both the media and ordinary Ukrainians not to post photos and videos of fires, smoke or explosions after rocket strikes or artillery shelling. However, if the media placement of such materials can be controlled by the internal editorial staff and external regulators, in the case of Telegram and Viber this does not work: photos and videos appear there on a daily basis.

At the same time, the published materials are useful not to the inquisitive Ukrainians, but mostly to the enemy — so russians can adjust the fire, create additional problems for our Armed Forces and delay Ukraine's victory.

Conclusion

Using social networks and messengers to consume news is a fairly justified strategy: they allow you to quickly receive live updates about developments in the front, track air raid alerts, and communicate with relatives or friends (all in one application). However, along with such an obvious convenience in obtaining information, social networks pose other risks to their users, often reporting unverified (or even dangerous) information. The huge number of subscribers to certain channels gives them access to a significant amount of information that they would not otherwise receive. At the same time, it helps them to disseminate a huge amount of information, including information that is beneficial to the enemy.

Due to the peculiarities of Telegram and Viber policy, it is almost impossible for either the ordinary user or media analysts to find out who is behind the production or dissemination of information in various channels. In the case of these messengers, it is also virtually impossible to achieve blocking of a particular channel or content: these social networks, unlike Meta, very rarely resort to blocking, referring to the protection of the freedom of speech. Eventually, this status quo allows channel owners in messengers to manipulate public opinion, and the enemy can successfully wage the information and psychological special operations.

The example of "Molnia" well illustrates the claim that anonymous channels are not always usual collectors and distributors of certain information. Instead, they can actively promote certain opinions or even help adjust enemy fire. Therefore, subscribing to such channels and sending them videos and photos of the consequences of missile attacks or artillery shelling can eventually entail danger for the authors of such materials.

However, it is quite possible to consume information in messengers in such a way as not to fall victim to the IPSO of the russian federation and not to adjust the enemy's fire. One of the most secure strategies is to use social networks exclusively to track messages from official authorities or follow posts from legitimate media. At the same time, this will save you from false or over-emotional information and help the Armed Forces of Ukraine to fight the enemy more effectively, bringing our common victory closer.