The claim
Pro-Russian propaganda on social media claims:
- Large (German) companies are being closed
- People in Germany are losing their jobs en masse
- Ukraine and the USA are to blame for the closures
Our conclusion
It is subliminal propaganda.
- The aim is to create a negative image of Ukraine.
- Behind the sponsored entries are accounts that can clearly be identified as fake
- These postings are intended to create unrest and discord
In the last few days, many people have been shown subliminal pro-Russian propaganda on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. This is primarily propaganda from the Ukraine denunciation category. The aim of this category is to endanger Ukraine's image.
At the same time, Ukraine should be blamed for circumstances that could endanger us in Central Europe. The fake advertisements and sponsored posts therefore always contain the same content. Companies have to be closed and employees laid off because there is a lack of energy or energy is no longer affordable. Or companies would have to close because raw materials cannot be delivered. For the sake of simplicity, a few examples to explain.
VW closes factory in Wolfsburg? No!
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Large German companies are named that allegedly have to close or relocate their production abroad. The propaganda content deliberately stages irritation and discord by describing a negative economic situation in Germany. A situation that does not exist as these plants do not close. Here are some examples for comparison purposes:




Based on these examples, the pattern behind them should be quite clear. All four are sponsored content. This means that Facebook's advertising library can be used to see that someone is paying for this content to be displayed to users in the new stream.

These posts reach different levels, but generate quite significant interactions, especially from men. The analysis from the advertising library on Facebook shows that, on the one hand, these advertisements are displayed regionally (depending on where the respective company is located), but it is overwhelmingly men who are shown these advertisements. Here is also a screenshot of one of these analyzes as displayed on Facebook:

Where these made-up statements are believed by people online, they are also commented on negatively. Comments are emerging that “our government” wants to ruin the country by supporting Ukraine.
Easily identifiable fake accounts
There are fake accounts behind these made-up statements and advertisements. These fake accounts are quite easy to identify as fake. These are accounts with few to no followers and no further interactions on their profiles. The profile photos depict people who are either difficult to identify via the respective pictures or depict people from Russia.
Here is an example: The profile photo of the supposed “Gerhard Knopp” actually shows the Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Borissowitsch Khodorkovsky. Here is the picture comparison:

A close look at high-resolution search results for Khodorkovsky leaves no doubt. It's the same person. The eyes, mouth, glasses and hairline are clearly identical. Here is the comparison between the profile picture on Facebook of “Gerhard Knopp” ( here ) and Khodorkovsky ( here ).
Irritation and discord!
These forms of manipulative sponsored ads can be found specifically on Facebook by entering certain text modules into the search within the advertising library. We used the terms “feel cheated” for this. Various postings will then appear (depending on the current time/date) with related content. This can reveal the closeness of the content of the individual propaganda postings.
The goal is also clearly identifiable: these postings are intended to subliminally spread discord and irritation. They are intended to harden certain propaganda narratives and thus create a negative view of Ukraine, but also of the USA and its own government, within the population.
Note: This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
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The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic.

