00:00Are Hollywood stars campaigning against Zelensky?
00:07A Kremlin-backed Russian bot network is at it again, this time targeting Hollywood.
00:12Several videos circulating on X and TikTok claim to show American actors delivering messages
00:17critical of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. In one of these clips, American actress and
00:22singer Gabriela Pizzolo, known for her role in Stranger Things, accuses Zelensky of stealing
00:27money. The edited clip also includes images from the war in Ukraine, overlaid with manipulated
00:32voiceovers. The original video of Pizzolo was initially posted on Cameo, a platform that offers
00:39personalized video messages from celebrities. In total, more than a dozen similar videos have
00:44appeared under the hashtag Hollywood against Zelensky. They were published within a short
00:48time frame and shared by accounts with no followers, no biography and generic usernames.
00:54All the videos promoted a website called Hollywood against Zelensky.org, a site that does not
00:59exist and has no valid domain registration. A research collective that studies bot network
01:05called Antibot for Navalny says this campaign shows signs of belonging to the Kremlin-ling
01:09Matryoshka network. Their approach involves scrapping videos online and adding synthetic
01:14audio with political messaging. The posts are then usually amplified by bot accounts,
01:19automated social media profiles designed to spread posts at speed. The campaign's ultimate goal is
01:25to turn people against European leaders and Zelensky. It aims to give people the impression that public
01:31figures are against Ukraine, asking them to take action to support Russia in ongoing peace talks.
01:36But the videos are ultimately fake and no celebrity has made these comments. In the meantime,
01:41X has suspended most of the accounts that were spreading this campaign.
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