Right-wing influencers hyped anti-Ukraine videos made by a TV producer also funded by Russian media
AP reporters identified a network of conservative influencers on the social media platform X who were sharing information posted by Ben Swann and affiliated accounts, using data provided by tech firm Bright Data. AP then partnered with researchers at Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, who built a Neo4j network database tracing the web of interactions surrounding the activity surrounding Swann’s “Zelenskyy Unmasked” video series. An AP analysis found that once the selected “Zelenskyy Unmasked” posts were shared by the network, an additional 9,300 unique X accounts with a combined 33 million followers then retweeted them.
Keywords: Connected Data • graph database • investigative journalism